


Bring Me To Life

by HeatherGiesbrecht



Category: The Matrix (Movies)
Genre: Angst, Fluff, M/M, Romance, Song Lyrics
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-05-17
Updated: 2014-10-24
Packaged: 2017-12-12 02:28:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 31
Words: 39,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/806105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeatherGiesbrecht/pseuds/HeatherGiesbrecht
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Neo shut the phone, "What is it Neo ?"  </p><p>"Apparently, I get to die again in a few seconds."</p><p>Smith heard himself say, "What ? No, no."</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Life

**Author's Note:**

> -Evanescence lyrics- Bring Me to Life lyrics  
> \- Alternate Universe after the Smith fight in Reloaded.  
> 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 'Single quote marks are first person thoughts'

_How can you see into my eyes like open doors? Leading you down into my core where I’ve become so numb_

_Without a soul my spirit's sleeping somewhere cold_

Smith did not know how, but some times in the fights, like before this last one with his copies. He felt as if Mr. Anderson, Neo he preferred, could see into him. Almost read his soul if he had one. Perhaps he did indeed have one. All that he knew was when ever Neo wasn't around, for some reason, he always felt cold. Alone. If only he could tell the pretty One how he felt. If he did that then perhaps Neo could help him find his soul.

_Wake me up inside (I can’t wake up)_

How he did love the pretty little human. It felt constantly as if he were asleep. As if he needed to Wake Up, like the Rebels said. But he could not wake up. The only times that he felt he were alive was when those big, dark eyes were watching him.

_Call my name and save me from the dark_

Those beautiful eyes, sometimes he felt in his dreams that he fell into eternal darkness. As if that unending darkness were his "life", coming undone around him. The nothing he had become, he needed to wake up. To feel alive. The only way he escaped those dreams, was Neo's voice telling him to, “Wake up”, saving him.

Neo could help him, if only Smith could find him. Without fighting this time, he did not want to hurt Neo not any more. He had found Neo in that Programming Hallway. Curiously alone, without **her** , without Trinity. He knew that he needed to tell Neo, now that he really knew, finally knew what he felt, "Mr. Anderson"

A wary pause before Neo replied, "Smith, my name is Neo. You know that."

"Hmm, of course, Neo. What exactly are you doing here, all by yourself."

Then as if fate, truly existed, if only to annoy him, Neo's cell phone rang. "Can I?"  
  
"But, of course."

The man answered it, then cursed sharply. "Link, even I can't make it out that quickly!"

As Neo shut the phone, with a harsh click, he asked, "What is it ? Neo"  
  
"Apparently, I get to die again in a few seconds."  
  
Smith heard himself say "What ? No, no."

Then Neo fell to the floor, he knelt down and felt once again cold. Like he could not breathe, though he did not need to. "No. No. Neo , wake up. Wake up you **cannot** leave me. You can't. I, I need you to live. To bring me to life, before I die without you."

_Save me from the nothing I’ve become_

_'Was I only playing my own mind ? Even if he does come back, he would never love me. I so wanted to be **real** if only for him. Except, how could I if I didn't have a soul. I was nothing. Truly nothing. I'm dead without you, not just cold, but frozen. Without knowing if you love me.'_  
    
Coldness and darkness, the evil he didn‘t want to become, started flooding his mind as he said, "Come on, darling, wake up, live. My life you have to live, or I'm dead as well. You were my only life among dead things. Please, Neo come back."

For an endless second, he stared into the dark-eyes. They were completely blank, completely and utterly wrong. Trapped in the unending darkness, again, but this time it was waking. There was no escape now, it was inescapable and, slowly, to do something he never had before that he’d always wanted for the first, and last, time he reached out a hand and ran it through the short, black hair. It was almost always messy whenever he saw it and it contrasted so sharply with the pale skin, Neo always looked beautiful even in death.

_Without your love, darling_

Smith felt as if he had been sleeping for a thousand years, only to die after realizing the most important thing to him. Even though it was impossible, he still pleaded, "There must be some way you can come back. Open your eyes come back from the darkness. From my darkness, be in front of me again. Bring me back to life."

_'Save me from nothing. I can't live without you. Sometimes I would start denying that I loved you. I have been lying to myself for so long, saying I do not need you. I was incredibly wrong.'_

"Neo, Neo come back. Please, you have to, you can't leave me, I…, and I love you!"

However much he had hoped for it, it was unexpected and scared him as briefly as Neo blinked, pushed himself up and looked around confused.

The man stammered, "L-let, let me think, Smith, give me a few days.", then Neo was up running away from him.

_'I want to follow him. I so want to, but if he needs to think about it, so be it. I can only hope that he loves me too.'_

_Frozen inside without your touch_

For the next few days, Smith felt perpetually frozen, perpetually asleep, but anchored in light. He could not wake up like he wanted to; Neo found him a few days later in at night in a darkened park. It was full of fir and poplar trees. As Neo walked into a pool of moonlight, Smith could see he was nervous.

The dark eyes were bright with it; he shifted his weight to his other side. "Smith, I know that I heard you say that you love me. It took me these few days to figure out how I felt. About that, about you. Smith you don't know how shocked I was. I couldn't believe it at first, I think I refused too. That what I wanted, what I always wanted could come true. I always thought to myself _'No, No it would never work, he'd rather kill you.'_ , I never thought _'What if he loves me ? Seriously, what if he loves me back'_ I should actually say it. I **love** you, Smith. "

The words echoed in his head, "I Love You, Smith", like a broken record. A good broken record, if there was such a thing. Suddenly the feeling of unending Darkness faded as his name echoed again in Neo's voice.

Like in his dreams, but this was the waking world. No longer coming undone. Once again calling his name. Once again saving him from the darkness. Bringing him to life, to his soul.

Smith could not stop himself then. Finding his soul returned to him. "I love you too, Neo, my life."

Caught him, dark eyes staring. No longer frozen, he was alive, kissed Neo. He should have done that **so** much sooner.


	2. Present

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Smith has a present for Neo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Over use of the word adorable and it's nouns/ verbs.

Smith hummed to himself quietly and ran a hand through his 'life's black-hair. An almost pig-like snort from Neo, he resisted the urge to laugh. How he loved the warmth. The cold feeling he had had until weeks ago was still gone. The reason was beautiful but also needed to wake up for the present. Plus, his gift was getting impatient about being held by one of his copies. Whispered "Neo, Neo love. Life, wake up."

Another snort and the pale One burrowed into the blanket. Looked up at the copy and asked "Do you think he is having that dream of being a turtle again ?."

While the present's head slammed its head his copy's chin, then whimpered. The copy shrugged but didn't answer that question "Wake him before it makes a mess, please." A half-glare at him as his copy got hit in the face again.

Dragged his hand through Neo's hair, down the pale neck to his shoulder to shake him briefly. Neo groaned and shrugged him off, he looked back at the copy. "Release the present."

"Gladly."

As soon as the thin, curly-black furred puppy hit the bed he charged across it at Neo yipping adorably. The puppy started to lick the man in the face and dark-eyes blinked open slowly. A pale hand reached up to the pet the puppy, a sleep-filled murmur " 'Llo, puppy.... puppy ? Yick, don' need puppy tongue."

They looked rather adorable together and completely harmless. Not that Neo was completely harmless, far from in fact. Though if you only ever saw Neo from a far you would think he was. The pale hand released the black-furred puppy, who then turned and charged at him with a tiny woof. Started to lick him and put a paw in his eye.

Muttered "Neo's right, it's too early for you to start... stop that. Neo, he just peed on me. It is not funny." Neo had just burst out laughing at him and his copy shook his head slightly in amusement.

Neo chuckled "His name is Hai."

"Yes, Hai for the 'ocean' of pee now residing in our bed and on myself. Nice to know you love me, my life."

"Of course, I do, my icy-dove.... this is just too funny."

He rolled out of their bed and replied "I suppose your right, but I still don't like getting peed on."

"Never said you had to, love. What'dya think Hai ? Should he be complaining ?"

A little yawned-howl from Hai in response.

"Oh, shush Hai."

Smith turned to mock-glare at them, ended up laughing as they stared up at him. Hai attempted to growl and Smith shook his head with a smile. He had two presents now. One he had wanted for a long time and had saved him from darkness. The second that peed on and growled at him. Adorably. Nothing could ever make him regret Neo or Hai.


	3. Hai

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hai goes missing.

"Smith ? "

Smith sighed from where he lay across Neo's lap on the couch. His black-haired love looked worried about something. _'It can not be the bills, they have all been paid. What could it be ?'_

Replied with a smile and hoped it would help calm the man "Yes, my life."

Watched as Neo bit his lip and then asked "Did you see Hai before ? I forgot to let him in last night."

_'So, that is why it's quiet today. Hai's not here to bark or pee on me **again**.'_

Tilted his head to look past his life and at the white ceiling. A few seconds past before the words came "No, Neo I didn't. Do not get too worried yet, it has only been a night. For all we know he's hiding over at Lucy's house."

Rolled off Neo to the floor and straightened up. Neo took a deep breath and sighed "You're right, now when'd you get optimistic ? A few months ago you were all about inevitability, what gives ?"

_'Well, that would be before I realized what I really felt.'_

Laughed as he pulled Neo off the couch, "That would be you, love. Until I met you I did not care if I got deleted, in fact I was planning on it. Then you came along and everything changed. Instead of wanting to 'die', I got trapped by my own darkness until you became my hope."

They walked out of the living-room and into the entrance. He opened the closet door as the man responded " Okay, well at least I helped. Now, hopefully Lucy can help us."

Lucy La Mort and her kids were the only ones newer to the area than them. Yet, they got along fine because Lucy had been an old friend of his love's. Also because of Hai who Rebecca and James had fallen in love with.

Smith shook his head, then took out his new jean jacket and pulled it on. _' I have to admit I like this jacket. Not just because Neo got it for me, but it's something new too.'_ Then he passed Neo the black cloth jacket.

* * *

 

Minutes later they set out for Lucy's house. It was down the block and across the street from theirs. As he walked he looked for any sign of Hai. But there was no sign of the curly, black-furred Wolf Hound.   
  
Lucy's place was dark-blue with white shutters. They turned down the blond woman's drive-way and along the path to her front door. Neo knocked on the door and a few seconds later little blond Rebecca opened the door.

Rebecca smiled "Hi." and then shouted " Mom, Tom and Ad are here."

A harassed looking Lucy appeared behind Rebecca in the hall-way. Her blond-black streaked hair was covered in bits of food. "Hey, guys. You need help with something ?"

Neo asked "Maybe, most likely. Well..."

Smith stifled inappropriate laughter and finished the sentence " Hai appears to vanished during the night. We are wondering if he wouldn't be hiding here somewhere. Seeing how much Hai loves being around Rebecca and James. "

A worried look flitted across Lucy's face and she replied "I'm really sorry, Tom, Adrian. Hai's not here, you need help looking ? I'll be glad to in a few minutes."

_'Well, this is great. Hai could be half-way across the city by now. Damn it, now Neo's going to start worrying again.'_

Neo stated "No ! No, I mean James needs you. We should be able to find him... I hope. We'll stop by when we find him."

"Okay, see you in a few hours guys."

He sighed relieved as Neo tried to be positive about it, they turned and left to start searching. It was too bad that he couldn't use his copies to help look, it would have helped a lot. Made their way from the sub-burbs and into the city, all the while they called for Hai and scanned the code. The code was no help as Hai's program was nowhere in sight.

One thing he did see was Neo's mental struggle with anxiety for their dog. _'He's got to be okay. Hai's the only one that really helped Neo at times. I don't want him sliding into darkness because of this.'_ While the Wolf Hound was much bigger than when he was only weeks old, Hai was still small for his breed.

* * *

 

A familiar bark filled the air from an alley to their right. Suddenly, a boy's voice shouted "Hey !. Where are you going ? Come back."

Smith laughed as Hai knocked both of them over when he charged into Neo's side.It was so hard to believe that just months ago Hai had been small enough to fit on their bed easily. _'He is fine, I knew it. He is never going to run away again. Not when Neo and I are going to worry about him so much.'_

His life ran his hands through the dog's fur, a relieved "Hai, Hai. Oh, thank God you're all right."

"Hai ? That's his name. It sounds cool."

He looked up a small black-haired boy with gray-eyes stood a few feet away. Neo answered "It's Japanese and means 'Ocean'. Did you find him ?"

"Ya, I did he was over by the old Wall Millet Hotel. If I hadn't found and distracted him, Hai would've fallen in one of the holes."

Neo buried his face in the dog's shoulder, then looked up and said "Thank you."

He asked the boy "What is your name ? "

"M' name's Cole."

"Is that a last name or a first name ?"

"I don' know, it's the only one I've ever had."

Smith turned his vision to the code again and saw that Cole was a program. An Exile that he'd never seen before. _'Perhaps Cole is like Neo's little friend Sati. One that was shipped out here to keep from being deleted by the System.'_

"Cole, do you have a place to stay  ? Or are you alone in here ?"

Watched as Cole shook his head and replied "No, I don't. Mom and Dad left me here by myself. They didn't explain why I had to leave either. I didn't want to go away, I don't know what to do."

Neo hummed "Well, you can stay with us then until we find you a place. "

As he pulled himself up and Neo with him, Cole smiled at them. Hai jumped up and barked at Cole before he started to chase his tail again. The three programs and one human walked to Lucy's house.

* * *

 

When Hai barked at Lucy's door, Rebecca flew out of it and slammed into the black-dog's chest.

Rebecca grinned "Hai !! You found him. Hey, who are you ?"

Cole answered Rebecca's question "I'm Cole, I helped 'em find Hai."

The little blond girl hugged the black-haired boy. Lucy's laughter echoed from the door-way "Hey, you found him. Come on in."

He and Neo followed Lucy into her house and then the kitchen. Lucy asked "What are you going to do with Cole ? I mean I've seen him around, but whenever I tried to approach him... he ran away. I think he trusts you guys for some reason."

"We'll keep him with us as long as we can."

After a while they went home, Cole would stay with them. Once a year Neo upgraded their unoffically adopted son's core program. So, that Cole appeared to grow up.


	4. Hit

Smith pushed off his anger at the teen's insult as Cole stalked up through the trees. He did not need to ruin his good memories of this park with anger. _'Neo, Cole and I come with Hai and this is what happens.'_

His long, black-haired and gray-eyed son glared down at the red-haired teen "You really just said that, Sam ? Tell me you didn't."

Sam spat back at Cole "So, what if I did, Colett. What're you gonna do about it. You're a damned weakling."

_'Well, this should be interesting to watch. He is definitely not weak, Neo and I've been training him for years. It's hard to remember Cole is actually a program like Hai and myself..'_

Laughed as his son took out Sam's legs and punched him in the face. Smirked as the black-haired program straightened up. Sam stared at Cole in surprise while blood ran from his nose.

* * *

 

Neo asked, suddenly standing behind him "What happened ? "

Turned to look at his life, his love that Sam had just childishly insulted. Those familiar dark-eyes looked worried as their dog growled. He answered with an annoyed glare down at the boy "He insulted first ourselves and then Cole. After which Cole showed him what you've been teaching him for years. It was quite the show."

Watched as the pale hand ran through black-hair, while Neo's eyes flitted over their group. Saw the flash of anger in dark-eyes, then he and Neo pulled Cole away. Their Wolf Hound, Hai sat down to growl at Sam as the boy shifted.

He asked while he looked around the sun-lit park "Since when has Sam been insulting you ? Just like your Dad you do not kick first and ask questions later. "

_'They always have thought first, even more than I myself have. Unlike that time when I nearly destroyed the Matrix. But then, I had neither Neo, Hai or Cole.'_

Gray-eyes looked up at the trees and then down "Since my first day of school. The reason I never snapped was because of you and 'Becca. Sam shouldn't 'ave insulted you. He doesn't know you, Sam's a damned idiot and doesn't shut up. Says whatever stupid thing comes into his empty head."

Neo responded with "Well, you went that long without hitting him, at least. More than I managed with Smith. You know he never shut up the first time I met him. The next time I did... I kicked his ass three times in the same day. Just don't do that to Sam he won't live through it."

Cole smirked and twisted a strand of his hair "I know and I'd never do that. Though sometimes I'd really, really like to. You've taught me better than that."

Smith stared as Neo said "Cole, down."

As the black-haired teen ducked at the words time slowed in the Matrix. Neo grabbed Sam's shoulders and flipped the boy over his head onto the ground. Smiled as he saw the One for the first time in years. _'He might not be the One, but that wasn't why I loved him in the first place. When I met him he was 'only' human, only anything as if.'_

The red-haired teen struggled and hit Neo. _'Sam is lucky he is a child or he would be in pain for that. Calm down, Neo is fine that hit was nothing compared to how hard you used to hit him.'_  
  
He glared again at the boy, then Cole hissed "You ever do that again, Sam. You ever insult or hit my Dads' again and I won't hold back."

Sam stared up at them and shoved Neo back onto the ground. Foot and paw-steps broke the sudden silence along with a breeze in the trees. Curly, black-furred Hai walked up along with his old friend Lucy La Mort's daughter Rebecca.

Rebecca asked, shocked "What happened, Cole ?"

Just like Cole had been upgraded, Rebecca had grown up. Neither the blond human girl or black-haired program were kids anymore. It was hard for him to process that any years had passed at all. Unlike a tree, he'd seen his son everyday for years and been blind to it. Techincally, Cole had never needed himself and Neo. Still caring for him all these years, it would be hard to see him move out. Yet, those steps had been taken and it was inevitable now.

* * *

 

_'How odd that I used to be so focused on the inevitable. It was not healthy, at least, I'll still have Neo and Hai.'_

He helped Neo up, then he, Neo and Hai went home. Thirty minutes later in their bed-room he pushed Neo's shirt up to check just in case. A faint bruise had started to form on the pale skin. Neo muttered "Times like these, I wonder why you're still with me."

"Why would you wonder that ?"

"Look at me, Smith. Look at fast that bruise showed up, I'm not what I used to be. Hell, Hai's got more black than I do in my hair."

Smith rolled his eyes and gently kissed the pale man "You are better than you used to be, Neo. Just like myself and I am not going anywhere. You have one strand of gray hair. Do not worry, love. "

Neo smiled softly "Okay.", then pulled him down on the bed.


	5. End ?

Smith opened his eyes to stare at the man asleep in the bed across from his chair. _'Dear God, it's hard to believe he's younger than me now. Younger by over six hundred years, yet he's the one with white hair.'_

Leaned over the bed and stroked the wrinkled cheek, it was the simplest thing for him to remember when it'd been smooth. Something that almost seemed a chore for Neo most days. Even white-haired and wrinkled, Neo was still the most beautiful being he'd ever seen. Laughed as once again Neo snorted in his sleep. _'Is he having that dream about the turtle yet again ? It's the oddest recurring dream he's ever had. Is this the last time he'll ever have it ?'_

He hadn't wanted to admit that his love got weaker as the years passed. The man had stopped Hai's program from deteriorating years ago. Yet Neo had refused to stop his own aging. It was incredibly selfish, but he wished that he and Cole hadn't had to watch Neo's inevitable death. Their son had visited earlier but Neo had been sleeping.

Long-lashed eyes opened slowly and it killed him to see the few seconds of blankness. The life that had become his life years ago had dimmed. Recognition flooded them, Neo reached up the pale hand shook as it touched his. Covered the trembling hand with his and brought it to his lips. He moved away slightly as the door opened and one of the nurses walked in.

_'At least, it's not that ass who thinks Neo and I are related. It's a program who knows far better. God, how I wish this was a dream, so that I could wake up. How I long for the days when the humans stared because of Neo's beauty. Then, they just stared in wordless jealousy. Not a single odd look because of how much time I happen to spend with him.'_

The blond A.I asked "How is everyone ?"

Neo snorted "You have to ask." and then coughed a few seconds later. For a few seconds, white hair turned to black and it was years ago. He'd thought it was just a simple flu but Hai had been going crazy. Himself and Cole both had had to persaude Neo to get it checked. Turned out his love had a weak case of pneumonia. Though Neo had hated it, he couldn't help that he started worrying.

Shook the memory away as the nurse checked his love over briefly. The blond said "She's waiting outside, wanted to know if she could come in and visit for the last time."

Another blank in the dark-eyes and "She ? She who ?"

"The Oracle. Do you remember her ?"

He glared at the program and Neo snapped "Of course I do. My memory is not that bad, damn it. Let her in."

A few seconds later the nurse left, then the Oracle entered the room with a "Hello, boys."

He replied "Hello, Mother. What do you want ? " as Neo rolled his eyes at the dark-skinned program.

Instead of answering his question, his so-called mother asked "So, what do you think of how this all turned out ? Was it worth it ?"

_'How could this not be worth it ? I've had Neo for what is the best part of my life. No killing, no blood and most importantly no darkness. Just my love.'_

Neo nodded "Of course, it was. Why ask you already know the answer or is it because of Smith ? "

The Oracle lifted a dark hand as she walked over. "You always were one of the brighter ones. One of the things I'm gonna miss most about you. Smith, are you sure you wouldn't have it the other way ?"

"What do you mean ? There was no other way."

"Sure, there was. You could have ignored the urge to look around. The darkness would have taken over and you would've taken the Matrix. Neo, at least, wouldn't have gone through all this pain."

Smith hissed as he stood in front of the bed "If this is all you came for... to, to talk about his death then leave, just leave."

He startled as Neo's hand wrapped around his wrist and pulled him onto the bed. Neo leaned against his shoulder with a soft "Don't. Just don't waste it."

Sighed then pulled the man closer against him. _'I don't want this to happen, yes in that way it would have been better. Not in any other way though.'_ Didn't remember how long they sat there, just that the Oracle left.

"Smith ?"

For some reason he whispered "Yes, Neo ?"

"Tell Cole I love him for me ?"

"Of course."

Neo stated curling into him "I love you, Smith, my Ice-eyes."

Had to force the words out as tears stung and spilled over " I-I love you too, my Neo. My L-life."

The darkness made it's first appearance in over thirty years. _'Neo said I should have left, so I wouldn't have to... but I disagreed. I thought, I thought I could handle this, I was.... I was wrong. So very, very wrong. Now, the Matrix will just go back to how it used to be. Why the hell couldn't I have been human too ?  Why not ? **This** **isn't fair** , it's not fair at all.'_

Cole's voice broke into his thoughts "Because it wouldn't have been the same."

Their son's gray-eyes were sad but also incredibly relieved. "You know it was for the best, Dad besides you were here that's all he wanted."

For the first time he noticed how much the upgrades had made Cole look like Neo. The inexplicably similar looks of their facial features, high-cheek bones, huge eyes and the pale skin. Just like Neo when someone first met him, nearly everyone trusted Cole.

Blinked the tears out of his eyes and laid his love down on the bed. Closed the dark-eyes for the final time, then Hai whined softly. Looked down to see the dog staring up at him. Neo would want him to take care of Hai and Cole.

 _'_ _Well, I'm not going to disappoint you, love. I'll take care of them, my life. I promise I will.'_


	6. Start

Max winced as his shoulder pulled when he slowed down. The teen stopped in front of the open door to Mr. Anderson's class-room. _'This is the third time I've been late. Damn it, this is not how I wanted to start my week or year. **Fuck** Cecil for making me late again, I hate him and his damned friends.' _

Inhaled a deep breath and walked into the long, black-haired man's room. Everyone in the history class turned to look at him, while he glared at Cecil. Who smirked and mouthed "Stupid blondie" at him. He refused to give in to the urge to launch himself at the bald, pale teen.

Shifted under the teacher's understanding gray-eyes and apologized before he sat down. Reflectively looked around for his old friends Trinity and Matt. Then he remembered they didn't hang out with **his** kind of people. Of course, they had to find out when he needed them most. Their dark-gray and brown-eyes drifted away from him as he got a peice of paper out for the notes. _'This might be the crappiest year of my life but I'm not going to fail. I've got enough problems without doing this all over again.'_

* * *

By the time first period was over his shoulder started to hurt so badly, he was surprised he could move. Time flew by in a pained blur until he stood in an alley across from the school. Cecil and his friends Dillon and Brandon stood in front of him. Cecil, Dillon and Brandon were shorter then him but the twins looked like they could punch through a wall, much-less him, easily.

Cecil crossed his arms "Well, well blondie. Looks like we're alone again and this time there's no Mr. Anderson to save you."

Brandon sneered at him "So, how many times it'd take before he agreed to save your sore ass yesterday ?"

_'Those, those fucks how dare they. The only person I can trust besides Mom and they... '_

He snapped back "It didn't take any. Can't say the same for you, Brandon. Cecil's **already** dominated you and Dillon, that probably took what two times ?"

* * *

 

Max pushed hair out of his brown-eyes, started to back away from the bullies. Turned on his heel and ran the other-way he just managed to get out, but Dillon was faster than he looked. Grunted as the huge, red-haired teen crushed the breath out of him. Felt blood run from either his lips or nose as Dillon pulled him up.

Got shoved up against the wall, even though it was useless he still struggled. Cecil grinned as he started to black-out from pain.

A voice broke in, "Cecil, what do you think you're doing ?"

_'What's Mr. Anderson doing here ?'_

Felt himself being dropped and more surprisingly caught. Had time to think _'Who's that ?'_ as he saw a pair of beautiful ice-blue eyes, just before he passed out.


	7. Turtle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There will now be mentions, depictions and later discussions of abuse from this point onward.

Max's mind knew he was dreaming. That didn't stop his turtle-self from trying to swim through solid ice. Everything flipped and he was swimming through black ice and a strange emerald-green rain. All through it a single speck of blue light shone in the distance. No matter how hard he tried to swim it never got any closer. Even to his turtle mind he needed to know what that light was. Needed to know why it felt so important to reach it.

Woke up in pain from his shoulder to see the icy-eyes still looked down at him. Those eyes occupied an equally cold but handsome face. Eyes that were starkly contrasted by tanned-skin and brown-hair. Noticed the man looked faintly amused before he got shut out into a sub-arctic blizzard.

Laid out on a couch surrounded by book-shelves and a t.v. he shivered. A hot flash shot through him as he thought _'Don't tell me I managed to embarrass myself in front of him. I must've, still it's better then Dad finding out a guy watched me sleep he'd kill me.'_

Startled as the man said "Good-bye." in a deep, dark drawl. Stared as the other stood up and walked out of the living-room. A black blur suddenly landed hard on his chest and started licking his face. Blinked and sputtered as he got the dog's tongue in his mouth, tried to push it off but was too weak. In too much pain to really try.

* * *

 

Mr. Anderson's voice called, soft but stern "Hai, get off him. He's got a bad shoulder and worse ribs, doesn't need you making things worse."

Hai whined but surprisingly gently climbed off him. _'Hai ? Isn't that Japanese or something ? Hey, he's a Wolf Hound, Mr. Anderson sure is lucky. Dad'd never let Mom and I get one. "Give you too much a sense of power." the bastard'd say. Wish this was a dream like my freaking turtle-self.'_

He petted Hai and asked "What's it mean ?"

"It means 'Ocean' when my father, who you just saw, got him for my dad, Hai hadn't gone bathroom for a while. He ended up peeing on my Father and half of their bed. My Dad just laughed at them."

His history teacher smiled at the story, Max smiled too. No wonder the man had helped him so much, he actually understood. Unlike his own crappy, abusive Dad. _'Wait, **wait** did I hear that right ? That guy is...' _

The words spilled out "He.... he's your Dad ? Oh, wow he must be a nice guy."

Gray-eyes glowed as Mr. Anderson replied "He really is, you've just gotta work for him to admit it. Max ? "

"Yeah, Mr. Anderson ?"

"How long have Cecil and his friends been beating you up ? You have some pretty nasty bruises on your sides."

_'Well, at least he didn't mention those stupid scars I was given.'_

Hai helped to push him up and he petted the curly-furred dog more.

Then he responded hesitantly " It only got into actual beatings when... when they found out about me. They implied stuff about us today because you helped me yesterday. I wanted to punch them for it, I couldn't. I'm too damned **helpless**."

_'That's just the way Dad want's it too. I'm stuck without Trin and Matt. It's too dangerous to try and get out.'_

Long, black-hair waved as his teacher tilted his head, "I think you're like my Dad and I. Father always said we thought first and kicked second. I could help you, Max. My Dad before he died he taught me all sorts of martial arts. I could teach you."

He reached out a pale hand to put it on the history teacher's shoulder. "I'd love that, I'm sorry about your Dad."

The man just smiled and nodded "Don't worry about it, Max." then handed him his shirt. Pulled it on with a bit of difficulty, then got up off the couch. Mr. Anderson and Hai walked him to the door. As he passed he stared at the black and white drawing of two men on the wall. One was probably Mr. Anderson's other Dad, since he recognized the brown-haired man.

* * *

 

Outside Max saw he was only two streets from home. _'It's dark ? Crap, Dad's gonna go crazy. Least if I was a turtle I wouldn't need Dad, I wouldn't have ever needed him.'_ He raced home injuries be damned, old ones were better than new ones.


	8. Groceries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max's next day running into Smith.

Max's Dad shouted, after banging on his door " **Max !!.** Get your worthless ass out of bed and get the groceries."

 _'At least he used my name this time.'_ Groaned and somehow managed to get up. He called without hope "I am, Dad. Can I at least have breakfast first ?"

"No." after that answer his Dad stomped away down the stairs.

_'Great, he didn't beat me last night, so he's starving me now.'_

Shuffled stiffly to the door and across the hall into his little bathroom. When he saw the new damage he covered his eyes. His bottom lip was cut along with a small scrape on his chin. _'What do I do ? Is he even going to let me out ? Probably not, damn it, I **need** to get out of here.' _

Licked dried blood off his lip, then brushed his hair and teeth. After he walked back into his bedroom. Pulled on a dark-gray shirt, after a pair of jeans as pain lanced through his shoulder. Grabbed a light jacket off the foot-board on his bed, then shuffled onto and down the stairs. Winced in the kitchen when he saw his Mom, the small black-haired woman looked terrified like normal. Wished again that he didn't look so much like his Dad. Had his Dad's blond hair and Mom's brown-eyes, thank God he hadn't gotten gray. _'Gray might be nice for Trinity and Mr. Anderson but if I'd got them too, I'd hate myself **even** more.'_

Mom smiled weakly at him then handed him his wallet. Dad glared at him but didn't stop him as he pulled the jacket on.

* * *

Skirted around the bigger man and only breathed a sigh of relief when he'd gotten outside. The feeling of oppression and fear vanished the farther away he got. Wondered what he'd have to get. _'Of course, Dad never let's me check what we need. Just have to hope I get the right stuff and enough of it. Hey, it's ice-eyes, wha... er, I mean Mr. Anderson's Father.'_

Called "Hey, hey ice-eyes wait up." as he ran to catch up. Surprised to see that the man wore a jean-jacket now. Sighed in relief as the blue-eyed man stopped and turned around.

Shivered when cold-eyes turned angry and the man scowled "You should not be running around with those injuries, Mr. Jameson."

Glared that inch up and replied "Blame the dick that calls himself my Dad and my name is Max !!. Plus, that's not fair I don't even know your last name. "

"Smith, my name is Adrian Smith. So, Max what are you doing ?"

_'Oh...it's so plain. I thought it'd be something different, something unusual that matched his eyes.'_

Max rubbed at his shoulder "Well, Smith he's making me get groceries. Thank God, it's the week-end, so at least there's no worrying about Cecil."

Smith hissed "He expects you with your injuries to carry who-knows how much weight coming back. Imbecile."

* * *

 

Blinked as Smith started to walk away before he followed the darker-haired man. It took twenty minutes for them to reach the store as he got shoved into Smith every five seconds.

He grabbed a cart and started going down the aisles. Managed the things on the middle shelves easily, since he didn't have to move much. It was the lower and higher shelves he needed Smith's help with.

Stopped in one of the aisles, took out his wallet opened it and stared.

Smith asked "What is it ?"

"That, that son of a.... he took my money. My debt, the cash everything. How the, ergh, that bastard."

The brown-haired man said, no, stated "I'll pay for it."

_'I wouldn't have half of this without him. Why is he helping me ? Does he want a favour or is it actually because he cares ? If only because of Mr. Anderson telling him about me ?'_

Looked up at blue-eyes and saw the sincerity in them. He protested with "But, I can't pay you or anything. I can't let you do that for me. Besides if he ever found out...." and looked away.

"On the days that Cole can not be there, I'll help train you. If you let me do that you will not have to."

Max shifted and muttered "Okay, Smith if you really want to."

After Smith paid for the groceries it took another twenty minutes for them to get to his place. When they reached the house, he stopped Smith and said "Thanks, Smith but I can take it in. You should probably go, like now."

For a second what seemed like hesitation flickered across Smith's face. Sighed in relief as the man turned and walked away from him and the horror house.

* * *

Max had brought all the groceries into the entrance except for one bag when his Dad appeared.

The heavily-built blond man looked furious "I told you to never bring anyone to the house. Never. Do you want to get in more trouble ? Too bad cause you just did."

_'Damn it he saw. Why couldn't I get lucky just this once ? This is gonna suck.'_


	9. Hurt

Tom sat down against the wall and looked around the office. More at the half-open window then anything and bit his lip, then shook his head. _'No matter what Morpheus said, I **can't**. Just do it. Do it. I... I can't it'd kill me if I fell. Coward, he thinks you can. But Morpheus **isn't** me.' _

Startled when the door opened and a man walked in. Tall with brown-hair and tanned-skin in a dark-suit. Disappointed him that the eye-color wasn't visible cause the guy wore shades. Then a dark voice " You did not do a very good job of hiding, Mr. Anderson."

_'Morpheus said I didn't want to find out...but I do want to. If only because of him, whoever he is.'_

He shivered as he responded "Who said I was trying to hide ?"

"It was just a 'mistake' then that you made it this far ?"

He grinned "Sure, let's go with that. Who are you anyway ?"

"Agent Smith." the Agent gestured and he stood on impulse. As Smith moved forward then put a hand on his shoulder, he couldn't help wondering what Smith saw to make him stare. He saw the eyes flicker but telling eye color was still impossible.

"Smith ? It's so....ordinary, somehow I don't think it suits you." he thought he saw the man's lips twitch into a half-smile.

All the humor drained away as a cop walked into the office. Turned out that being hand-cuffed hurt a lot. Except for Smith's hand on his shoulder.

He felt like he was falling.... as his Captain tried to be calm but failed, the brown-eyes angry "Neo, why can't you see he's **using** you ? Look at all the fights you had and suddenly he loves you ? I find that hard to believe. He's only pretending so you don't kill him."

Neo shook his head "You don't know Smith, you've never even tried. If you did, Morpheus, you'd know he's better than that."

"I don't need to since it's obvious you won't see what's right in front of you."

_'He doesn't even believe me.'_

Glared at Morpheus before he turned and walked away "Fine, whatever you say, Captain."

When he turned the corner he ran into Smith. He closed his eyes as tears stung and spilled over, unlike Morpheus, Smith didn't say anything and ran a hand through his hair. _'Morpheus didn't even try. I...I thought if anyone would understand it'd be him.'_

* * *

 

Max opened his eyes he'd never felt so much pain before. Instinctively he knew his Dad had broken some ribs, it hurt to take a deep breath and his shoulder throbbed. _'Well, I didn't fall out of bed this time. Why would I dream of meeting Smith like that ? That doesn't make any sense. At least, I know Smith would understand. Why couldn't Dad have gone out before I got back ? At least, at least Smith didn't see it...Mr. Anderson'll definitely have to put my first lesson back... damn it.'_

He stiffened as his bed-room door opened, then relaxed as Mom asked "Max ? Are you awake ?"

Groaned "Yeah, I am." well, his face hurt the same as before though. He wouldn't have to explain any unusal face injuries on Monday. _'Uggh, am I even going to make it to school with all these injuries ? If I do Cecil'll have the time of his life and claim he did it. Will Matt and Trinity even care when they see me ?'_

Mom shuffled to stand over his bed "Matt came over earlier. He wanted to apologize, of course, I couldn't let him in. Thank God, your Dad left to go to that bar after."

_'Matt...wanted to apologize ? It's a miracle, I'll get that apology yet. Now, is Trinity ever going to say sorry ?'_

He sighed that was typical of his Dad, hurt them and then leave. God, he just wanted to get out of this damned place alive. Right now, that didn't seem very likely. Even with it, it would probably still be risky for everyone involved. When the time came he hoped everyone would come out alive, cause Dad wouldn't give up control easily. That was one trait they both shared.

 _'Smith is pretty stubborn too and a good fighter. Heh, mistakes, yeah right those were deliberate. Wha...?_ _Yeesh, what's happening to me that's what I'd like to know.God, I wish we had some pain-killers.'_

Max wished his Dad would have at least let them get that. As he thought about it, he remembered having seen Smith slip something like that into the cart. Mom smiled "You'll never believe what I found in a bag. How'd you get those pain-killers past him ?" as she ran a hand through his hair.

"I didn't. Smith must of hidden them pretty good, he really is a nice guy. We've gotta come up with an excuse so I can go over to Mr. Anderson's house."

"What have you got planned Max ?"

"He's gonna teach me how to fight."

Mom twisted hair around her finger and looked amazed. It took him a few minutes to force himself up as Mom went and got a glass from down-stairs. Unsurprisingly, it was hard for him to swallow the pills. Sure, it was dark because of the clouds outside but he couldn't sleep now. Not after those weird dreams, he wanted to draw something.


	10. Apology

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max, Matt and an apology.

Max walked, like the past two days, pain-free into Mr. Anderson's class-room. For once he was actually early, it surprised him that Mr. Anderson wasn't alone. Matt in a red-shirt and black-pants stood by his desk. The bald, dark-skinned teen's face was nervous. He walked up to Matt as Mr. Anderson left the room.

Matt shifted and then said " I... Max, I don't know why I went along with Trinity's plan. She thought you liked her for some reason. I knew you didn't but she was so set on it, I thought she snap and hurt you if I said otherwise. With everything you were all ready going through I couldn't do that. I'm a horrible friend, Max and I'm sorry. You can't imagine how sorry I am."

It took a second for the implications of Matt's words to hit him. Still he had his best friend back. He didn't care about so-called 'rules' and hugged Matt.

"I forgive you....just don't listen to her if she's still crazy, okay ?"

Matt hugged him back "Thank you, and I won't. Let's just hope she doesn't team up with Cecil, eh ?"

"Huh, who cares as long as he's not after me too. Besides I think he's had his eye on Trinity for a while."

The class-room door opened again and closed softly. Mr. Anderson asked while walking up "Everything all right now ?"

They seperated and he smiled at the gray-eyed teacher. "Everything's good now."

Mr. Anderson smiled back at him as Matt took his old desk again. History, Math, Gym and lunch flew by in a blink.

* * *

Max looked over his shoulder as he left the school and Matt behind. He finally had time to think by himself. It had been two days since his first lesson with Mr. Anderson on Monday. He was still a bit sore, but it was nice kind of sore. Better than being beaten nearly to death. After his lesson he had first noticed the feeling of being watched. It felt like he was being chased by invisible people. His heart almost stopped as he saw Cecil, Dillon and Brandon behind him. Cecil's ass-hole behaviour had gotten worse. In fact it had actually increased just like he'd thought it would.

_'Agh, how can I get Cecil to go away ? Smith'll help me right ? At least,even if for some reason he doesn't. I've got Matt back on my side now. Who knows if I want Trinity to be my friend again after what Matt said. I can't believe she thought **I** was interested in her. I never gave her more attention than anyone else, she completely made it up.'_


	11. Fair

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Angel Street Fair was loud and packed with people.

The Angel Street Fair was loud and packed with people. Smith did not care for any of them. He had a far more important person to care about. For once he wore just his dress-shirt and pants. He looked slightly down at Neo. While Neo wore a short-sleeved, dark-green shirt and black-jeans. A white dove landed on Neo's shoulder as the man leaned against him.

Neo's friend Lucy stood across from them with the camera. In the past weeks Neo had gotten him to trust her.

_'A dove for peace and it is with my Life how fitting.'_

He asked "What do you think we should do now ?"

A non-committal hum and a shrug in answer "Wander ? I don't know."

Stared at the dove who had yet to move from Neo's shoulder. "I think it happens to like you."

The confused response "What likes me ?"

He could not help laughing as the dove cooed and Neo jumped. While the pale skin flushed in embarrassment he was half-heartedly shoved "You didn't see that."

Pretended to stumble and look around "See what ? Except for that bird in your hair there is nothing to see."

Dark-eyes rolled "Sure. Smith, why would it fly into my hair ?"

Smiled as the dove flapped its wings and flew off. It left feathers in the short, black-hair.

"I was right."

Neo half-smiled and shook his head in mock-annoyance "Hmpf. Stop being right all the time, Ice-eyes, it's annoying."

He replied "Whatever you want, my Life."

As he started to pull the feathers out Neo shivered in response. Lucy laughed "Hey ! I haven't taken a picture yet."

* * *

Smith jerked his eyes open as a knock sounded on the door. Pushed himself up off the couch and looked down at the photo-album spread out on the coffee-table. _'Max looks so much like him....just blond. The same pale-skin and big, brown-eyes. No, just because Max looks like Neo and Cole says they have some of the same habit's does not mean they are the same.'_

Another more urgent sounding knock on the door. Shook his head and gently closed the album, before he walked into the entrance. When he opened the door he did not expect to see Max stood on the steps of his house. Max looked worried, biting his lip and on the verge of an anxiety attack.

_'Another similiarity with Neo. He had those too no matter how well he hid it from the Rebels and Lucy. He could never hide it from me, not that he would have been able to with how bad some of them were. What could have set Max that on edge ?'_

Gently he pulled Max inside and leaned around the door-frame. Growled as he saw the Agents that stood down the road from his house. _'Why the Hell are they going after N-Max ? He has barely been around me at all.'_

Closed the door swiftly but quietly as he said "You're safe, they won't dare come here."

A half-sound told him it had not worked and he turned around. Max's whole body shook, brown-eyes were just barely consious. He pulled Max into his body and started to run a hand over the slim-back. While they shook Max's arms wrapped as tightly as they could around him. In his mind blond turned to black, he only stopped when the shaking had subsided. He remembered Neo's words after the first one "Lass nicht los!"

Found himself repeating the familiar words "Ich will nicht, meine Liebe."

Max pulled back to stare at him as pale-skin flushed. Hai barked suddenly and startled them both. As Smith looked up Cole smirked at him from down the hall. Glared back at his son and shook his head.

Cole asked their guest "Are you all right, Max ?"

Max's reply shook "I-I'm all right. I-I think. S-Smith, why ? Why are...are they following me ? I haven't done anything to get stalked by **them**. Why are they doing it ?"

Looked down at the floor as Hai nudged Max's hand. "That, Max, would be my fault. They take an interest in anyone who is around me for any length of time. I should have warned you, but I did not think of it. I am sorry, but I swear they will not hurt you in my house. Not while I am here."

Max asked "Could I stay for a bit ?"

He replied "Of course."

Cole hummed as they all went into the kitchen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Lass nicht los !" means "Don't let go !" 
> 
> "Ich will nicht, meine Liebe." means "I won't, my love."


	12. Ghost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Smith again saw Neo's ghost in Max.

Smith stared as Max walked over to the chair that had 'belonged' to Neo. Watched the left foot's weight shift to the front, the right foot's to the back... lean into the spin and a soft sigh as the teen landed in the chair. ' _That... is....impossible.'_

That... that particular pirouette he had only ever seen Neo use. Unlike Cole's reporting of habits, this could not be dismissed easily, if at all. As Hai stared up at him, he looked at Cole who raised an eyebrow again. When his gaze was drawn back to Max, concerned brown-eyes stared at him.

Max asked, "Smith, are you all right ? You look like you saw a ghost."

_'For what it is worth, I may as well have. What does it mean that reincarnation actually exists ? Is he only subconsciously acting like Neo, or is it a conscious decision ?'_

"I am fine."

He didn't expect to see a familiar annoyed look enter the dark-eyes, "You're lying. You're looking around, almost biting your lip and reaching for your cuff-link."

It made him stare again, then ask, "How do you know that, Max ?"

The annoyed look faded and turned confused. A hand ran through blond-hair as Max responded, "I don't know. That stuff it just…it just happens. Then there’s those nightmares the last few days they scare me. As if there isn‘t enough blood when I‘m wake." Max stopped and dropped his head into his hands, “I’m going crazy I swear.”

_‘Nightmares ? So, in those memories Neo still thinks I hate him. Max thinks he’s going insane but he is not.’_

When he went to say such, across from him Cole jerked his head in a sharp ‘No’ gesture. Cole answered, “Probably not Max. You have been very stressed lately and that can translate into bad dreams. Just watch a few days and it’ll probably get better. Do you have homework to do from some of the others ?”

At that Max thunked his head into the table, “Crap, I forgot it in my locker. Damn it, Matt was supposed to remind me and we both forgot.”

Cole replied, grinning smugly, as Max raised his head, “Jane, ah, Miss. Dane told me you were having a bit of trouble with algebra. Father could help, he’s a lot better at it then Dad was and I am.”

That made him say sternly, “A word if it would please you, my son.”

The words wiped the smug grin from Cole’s face. Besides that tone nothing could make that happen faster than mentioning the death of Cole's wife. Rebecca had died in a car accident just days after Neo’s own death. It had led Cole to move back home. Cole’s daughters, Michelle and Lucy, had not visited in fifty years, long before Neo‘s death.

Satisfied that Cole would listen now, he got up and led his son into the spare-room. He closed the door as Hai tried to follow them in, then he asked, “What do you think you’re doing ?”

Cole’s gray-eyes blazed suddenly, “Doing what I always have for the past five years, trying to help you. Don’t you see Father, Dad didn’t leave us and it sounds like he could be trying to come back. Why do you think besides the obvious reason that Max’s fuckhole Dad needs a **serious** attitude adjustment, did I suggest training him ?”

Smith nodded and replied, “Well, you definitely did not learn that from your Dad. I know you are trying to help but it is annoying. I refuse to subconsciously force anything on him, if he likes me he does. If he does not it is as simple as that.”

Cole sighed before he nodded too, his son opened the door and they walked back to the kitchen. _‘Helpful but still a brat. He’s lucky grounding him would look extremely odd or I would do it.’_

Max’s eyes drifted to him that hopeful look that he had never managed to deny in them. He exaggerated a sigh and said, “I suppose it could not be that hard.”

Cole started choking on his laughter and then he noticed Max’s newest blush.

_‘Is it just because of Max himself or because he remembers Neo or both ? Now you’re going to get overly analytical aren’t you ? It doesn’t matter whether he really is Neo or not you still feel something similar for him. Plus, it seems that, at least, he likes you.’_


	13. Sleep

Smith hummed as Neo shifted closer into his side, the black-haired head lay on his shoulder now. Stars twinkled above them in a clear sky, just like all the evening it’s brightness hadn’t faded once. He’d known it would be this nice, so, he had suggested a moonlit picnic. ‘ _Moonlit picnic. I sound like a love-struck idiot. Ah, well, I **am** a love-struck idiot after all.’_

Neo sighed and it turned into a half-yawn as he half-turned to look at the man. His love looked tired, the long eyelashes fluttered, those big brown-eyes barely able to stay open. He smiled and caressed the pale cheek-bone, a soft breeze, as if the wind program did not want to interrupt, ruffled their hair.

The quiet was shattered by a shrill ring over 500 feet away. Panic being Neo’s instinctive reaction, as nearly too tired for thought, the man struggled against his own, by now instinctive, light hold to get up.

_‘God **damn it !** Fuck you, Morpheus. If Neo wasn’t half-brain washed and half-your friend I would have killed you over that first panic attack, you **fuckhole**.’_

 He whispered, “Calm down, dear Life. Let the fuckhole stew for interrupting us.”

The panic on the pale face turning to amused confusion, “Fuckhole ? I don’t think I’ve heard that one before. Heh, nice one.”

A very familiar smirk on his lips as he answered, “Thank-you.”

Amusement and alertness died back to sleepiness, a yawned, “What if it’s Niobe ?”

“Then I will get it and help her, you are in no mental shape to help anyone tonight.”

When there was no answer he looked back and saw the dark-eyes had slid closed, pale-pink lips half-parted in sleep. Gently, he picked Neo up and carried him to the car.

**End Flashback**

Smith smiled slightly as Max yawned and then shook himself briefly. That made him say, “If only for your mother’s worry, perhaps you should go back, Max.”

The pale hand let go of the pencil with a disappointed look, “Suppose I’ve gotta, really.”

He helped the blond to clean up, Cole and Hai had disappeared again. They went to the door and Max opened it warily then slammed it back shut.

“Smith, they’re still out there. What are they waiting for ?”

“I don’t know, but I will go with as far as before.” With those words he opened the closet door and pulled out his jean jacket.


	14. Jacket

Max had felt more confused since he’d started the homework. Images kept randomly flashing through his mind. He stared at the jean jacket as Smith pulled it out. It looked…familiar ? _‘How can it look familiar ? I’ve only seen it a few times.’_

**Flashback**

Neo laughed as he pulled the suit jacket off Smith. The ex-Agent looked confused as he asked, “Why do you think I need this, again ?”

He folded the black jacket nicely and handed it back, “I’ve never seen you in anything but that. Of course, it looks good, but, I want to see you in something new, Ice-eyes. You’ve gotten a new life and love, so why not, if you like it at least, a new jacket too, hmm ?”

A slight pause then Smith rumbled, “All right, love.”

That made him grin and he turned to go look for something.

_‘Hmm, it's always something business-y with him. So, how 'bout something casual for once ? I wonder what he'd think of a jean jacket ? Might as well see if I can find one that will fit and maybe he likes it in the end.'_

Immediately, he dismissed the gray and black versions for the dark-blue. ‘ _It’ll be a nice contrast to those bright eyes of his.’_ It took him a few minutes to find one that looked like it would fit. When he did he made his way back to Smith, to see something he’d expected earlier - a blond guy was talking to Smith and his love was looking particularly annoyed.

_‘Okay, interference. I don’t want him shooting that idiot and he only wants the guy to go away.’_

He walked up to, then slid in between Smith and the heavy-set blond man, kiss Smith briefly. After he handed the brown-haired A.I. the jacket he said, “You know, love, it’s almost impossible to find something for you.”

Angrily, the blond man grabbed his shoulder and spun him around. His own automatic response a wrist-lock and open-palmed blow to the green-eyed, tan-skinned face.

An old lady’s voice, “Raphael Jameson ! What do you think you are doing ? It’s obvious even to old Martine who’s **blind** that the man is taken.”

That made him look up to see a white-haired woman with the ‘old’ black A.I. from his first time at the Oracle’s building. Martine smiled at him and greeted, “Hello, young One, Smith.”

Both he and Smith replied, “Hello, Martine. How are you ?”

Martine laughed, “I’ve been good and it’s nice to, in a way, see you two together. I always told her, “Even if you would try your hardest, Ora, you’d never keep those two apart.” Nice that I was right. Now, you move along Mr. Jameson, there’s nothing interesting here.”

Jameson growled in response, turned and stalked out of the store.

**End Flashback**

Max/Neo shook the memory away with a faint smile. _‘Obviously, those memories of mine are going out of order now because of my drawings. Still, that’s a nice way of reminding yourself. Hmpf, why are the Upgrades going after me ? They’ve got no reason to, that I know of, at least.’_

“Smith, why do you think the Upgrades are stalking me ? Really, it makes no sense.”

He had to laugh at the hopeful/confused look on Smith’s face, “Neo ? Y-you do remember everything ?”

That had him shrugging, “Not quite everything, but, enough I guess. I’ll still have to pretend to be scared of that asshole for Mom’s sake. Ugh, this is gonna get confusing. I mean, come on, my own son is older than me now… and my freaking **teacher**.”

Smith chuckled, “I suppose we’ll have to deal with it as it comes. Perhaps, we should just ask Johnson what he wants.”

Nodded and then they went outside to talk to the Upgrades.


	15. Agents

Neo/Max hummed, “Hiya fellas.” as he and Smith walked up to Agents Johnson, Jackson and Thompson. The Agents stood on the sidewalk, the blue house behind the street from the Agents had belonged to the Harris family when Cole and Rebecca were young.

It was hard to tell the black-haired and green-suited Agents apart, except that Johnson was bit taller than Jackson and Thompson. Johnson’s eyebrows rose above the dark-shades, “The Anomaly.”

Jackson and Thompson in simultaneous disbelief, “He remembers.”

Johnson added, “Except, how much does he ?”

_‘Do those two ever say anything by themselves ? Seriously, all the times I’ve met them and it doesn’t sound like it, god, that’d get boring real fast. Why would they care if I remembered my first fight with them ? It wasn’t really anything significant about it.’_

 As he asked, “Why are you guys following me ? Why do you care what I remember or don’t ?”, he found himself leaning back against Smith. It was a nice feeling as the ex-Agent’s breath ruffled his hair.

Johnson answered in an accusatory tone, “The Matrix is starting to crash, again, because yourself and Smith refused to do your parts.”

“That was, it was I don’t know how many years ago…,”

Smith murmured in his ear, “Well over seventy now, since we both said, “I love you.”, and ended up ruining the System’s plan.”

He shifted slightly and a breeze ruffled all of their hair as he exclaimed, “Seventy-freaking-years ?! That’s crazy, just plain crazy ! Anyways, how can something from that long ago be our fault.”

It left him, almost, speechless as Jackson, or was it Thompson ?, replied, “It’s a very simple thing, because you didn’t die to get rid of Smith the Matrix didn’t reload the Prime Program when it should have. It left the Matrix incredibly vulnerable and it only somewhat stabilized when you were buried. Except, the Matrix only reabsorbed half of it, the other half vanished. For a while, until recently we had no idea where it had gone.”

When he couldn’t think of anything to say, Smith put his thoughts into words, “You’re idiots, dick-headed idiots if you thought we would really do that. It’s not our fault that we fell in love. Eventually, it would have been inevitable, if not us it would have been someone else, so, you cannot blame this on us. Where did the other half of the Prime Program go ?”

“Neo’s memories have started to return, signifying that his part of the program has reactivated. Smith, you should know that the Prime Program was never meant to be split apart. If it can’t be patched back to it’s former stability, it will tear the Matrix apart.”

Max shook his head, “Look that sounds like it sucks majorly, but that doesn’t tell us where the other half of the program is. Where the hell is it ?”

It was Thompson, or was it Jackson ?, that finally answered the real question, “It was absorbed by a girl named Sarah Edmontons. She is going to be transferring to your school tomorrow and we need you to convince her to let you combine both halves, again.”

Himself and Smith both exclaimed, “Why the fuck couldn’t you just say that ? You fuck-holes.”

Jackson raised a hand and stated, “We didn’t know if he had regained his memories and was faking amnesia, or if he truly didn’t remember ! We didn’t want to start a fight with him and we needed to be on his, ah, good side.”

It made him face-palm and Smith gave a derisive laugh at the Agent’s reasoning.

_‘They’re a whole bunch of idiots if they thought following me would increase my opinion of them. Damned fucking **idiots** , all this because they want me to talk to some girl named Sarah. I thought the Machines were supposed to be **way** smarter than this. Well, there was when I was running to room 303 and Smith threw that knife at me and it completely missed. Yet, when I asked him if he’d done it deliberately, he said he had, but, even if he hadn’t he still would’ve missed. The Machines are idiots, yet somehow they conquered the human race, obviously, they’ve gone down hill.’_

He opened his eyes, when he realized Smith’s hands were on his hips he was surprised. _‘Does Smith like me or is it just Neo that he likes ?’_ Still, despite that answer there was really only one answer to Jackson‘s statement, “Fine, I’ll do it, but, you assholes owe me for this after tailing me for days, weeks, whatever on end.”

Jackson sighed, “Whatever you require, Mr. Jameson.”

_‘Why did he just call me that ? Either he’s called me, “Anomaly” or he’s called me, “Neo.”, but he’s never called me, “Mr. Jameson” before. What’s up with that ? Screw it, I don’t care.’_

Smith had moved slightly away from him and now said, “Well, Jackson, on that note we should be going.”

With those words Smith walked with him, almost, back to his house. The brown-haired A.I. looked down at him, before starting to lean in, it was so close, he could practically feel Smith’s lips against his.

Of course, right then, his dad had to interrupt, “Max ! What the hell do you think your doing ?”

Startled, he jerked away from Smith and looked up at his dad. Anger flooded through his body as his dad started stalking up the sidewalk towards them. ‘ ** _Enough !_** _Not this time, he’s not scaring me away from a guy I like, again. Screw the plan, I remember enough to beat dad without trying.’_


	16. Leaving

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translation of the German, “Meine Maxxie, wurden Sie mir helfen ?”, means - “My Maxxie, would you like to help me ?”
> 
> “Ja, Oma.” - “Yes, Grandmom.”

It was likely his overconfidence that made him get his ass kicked. He, well, Neo really, was the One, he’d defeated a crap load of Smith’s copies, so, how was dad **ever** going to beat him ? It was humiliatingly easy considering all the amazing things he’d seen and done in his dreams and drawings. 

He’d thrown a punch at dad’s face, it’d been blocked as dad trapped his wrist in a joint lock. Since he was thwarted that way, he tried to jam a knee into his dad’s stomach, it connected and didn’t do anything. Seconds later, the world spun upside-down and back up right as he was cart wheeled to slam hard into the sidewalk. 

The impact left him in breathless agony as pain shot through his ribs and up his back. Slowly, he half-rolled onto his side as blood from his once again cut lip filled his mouth and spit it out; it reminded him of something, one of his old memories.

**Flashback**

Neo barely registered that Smith had even punched him, before he was flying through the air to crash into the train stations beige floor. For a second he was half-curled up in pain as blood filled his mouth, he choked on it before spitting it out.

As he slid into a half-seated position, he saw Smith’s face in the harsh, florescent lights. Those bright-blue eyes looked down at him uninterestedly, despite the slight triumphant smile on the tanned face.

_‘ I know he’s the one that caused it, but, it’s nice to see him actually smile for once. Since for a few seconds he’s not blank, smirking or scowling at me. Smith actually looks almost happy.’_

Those thoughts almost made him regret getting up, because then the smile faded and Smith’s expression turned blank again. More to impress Smith, than intimidate the Agent because it wouldn’t work, he wiped blood off his lip and struck a stance.

** End Flashback **

_‘ Damn it, well, this is really embarrassing. If only I knew how to heal myself in the code, I‘d never have to deal with this bastard giving me injuries, again.’_

Max blinked up as Smith moved, Neo’s memories told him that the cuff to the head, followed by a strike to the chin and, lastly, dad’s chest was called a three-hit strike combo. Dad crashed into the sidewalk a second after Smith helped him up. 

When they walked past his dad, the blond-man growled, “This isn’t over, you and Annie need me. You move, you do anything, but stay at home with your mom and I **will** find you, Max. You can ’t hide from me, you perverted little freak !”

_‘ I don’t need him, all he’s ever done is try to beat me straight. Why would I ever go back except for Mom ?’_

He smiled as when Smith stopped for a second to glare down at his dad, the gray-eyed man cowered and looked away. Finally, he and Smith continued on their way to his house.

“Well, good luck with that, because I’m going to get mom along with our things and then we’re leaving.”

A minute later, he walked through the front door and called, “Mom ? Get your stuff, we’re leaving.”

His mom walked out of the living room, her dark-brown eyes bright with happiness. The first thing her gaze landed on was Smith, “Who are you ?”

“Smith, Adrian, Smith. It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Jameson. ”

Mom smiled and walked up to shake Smith’s hand, “The pleasure is mine, Mr. Smith, thank you for helping Max, you don‘t know how much it means to me.”

By the way, mom’s smile widened into a grin, he knew Smith had to be giving him some sort of look as the ex-Agent replied, “It was nothing and I would have done it anyway. We should be getting your things together, Max, and it should be decided where you two are going to stay.”

Both he and mom shared a look, as they said simultaneously, “The Silver Hawk Hotel.”

“The Silver Hawk ? As in the one close to the old Heart O’ the City Hotel ?”

Mom nodded, “Gabriel’s never been to the Heart O’ the City, he doesn’t know the area so we’d be safe from him around there.”

“Good, now it’s time to pack, do you need help, Mrs. Jameson ?”

“No, no, I’m fine, just help Max with his things.”

With that said, he led Smith up the staircase to his room, then growled, “Where’d I leave that suitcase ?”

It surprised him when the world turned to black filled with bright-green rain and he could see through the bed to the floor and below it. _‘ This is just like that stupid turtle dream I had. Why does the suitcase have to be **under** the bed ? ’_

Annoyed, he kicked the bed and the pain made the ‘rain’ disappear. Then Smith, as if the man knew what he wanted, was crawling under his bed to get the suitcase. He stared as the back of Smith’s jacket and shirt rode up to reveal a bit of tanned and hard-muscled back. 

‘ _Huh, I didn ’t really think about what he actually looks like under those clothes, nice ass too. Well, he did say he’d teach me when Mr. Anderson, Cole, Mr. Anderson ? Argh, whatever couldn‘t so it makes sense he’d know the martial arts too.’_

Even though there was no way that Smith could see him, he still blushed as the blue-eyed A.I. got up slowly. After Smith put the suitcase on the bed, he replied with a, “Thanks, Ice-eyes.” as he packed up.

The comfortable silence was broken when Smith asked, “May I ask how this all started for you ?”

He sat down on the bed, as he started to talk the fuzzy memory gained clarity, “I was like five or six and just barely started Kindergarten when we went to my Grandmom Jameson’s. We were sitting at the kitchen counter and she was making something, she was from Germany and whenever I was over she’d make perogies so it was probably that.”

**Flashback**

Max looked around the small, red-walled kitchen with its white tile floor and then at his Grandmom - she was short, with graying, red-hair and bright hazel-eyes. It always felt better here than at home, like something was…nicer.

“Meine Maxxie, wurden Sie mir helfen ?”

He nodded and replied, “Ja, Oma.”

She moved him to sit in her lap and put his hands on the rolling pin to push the dough flat. For some reason, the way the dough flattened out and stretched fascinated him.

Heavy footsteps came down the front hallway and entered the kitchen. His dad exclaimed, “What the hell do you think you’re doing ?!”, and rushed over to pull him away from Grandmom in a too tight hold.

“I’m teaching him to cook, God knows you never had any luck with it and Maxxie happens to enjoy it.”

“No ! No way, that’s women’s work and you’re **not** turning him gay, you wish he’d been a girl instead.”

As he watched, Grandmom shook her head, “You still believe that bullshit ? That’s not how it works Gabriel Jameson and I’m fine with Maxxie just how he is.”

Dad gave an angry snort, turned and stalked out to the truck, where he was put down on the truck bed. He squirmed as dad snarled, “Annie, get out here and help me. **Now**.”

His mom, who looked scared, walked up and then pulled his shirt up as dad got out a little knife. A flash of pain across the right side of his stomach as, “If I ever find out you’re doing that again, you little bastard, I’ll kill you.”, echoed in his head. It was followed by, “Shut up !”, and a slap as he couldn’t hold in the pained sound when there was another flash of pain on the left side. Just before everything went black, he saw that mom had started to cry.

**End Flashback**

He concluded the memory with, “So, that’s how it started and how I got those scars on my stomach.”

When the blue-eyes turned angry he flinched away, then a tanned hand reached up to smooth his hair and pull him closer, as Smith said, “He’ll pay for doing this to you and your mother, Max, I promise. If it’s in my power to prevent it, I will never let him hurt you, again, not ever.”

Those words made him smile and he replied, “Thank you, Ice-eyes.”, as he closed his own.

They startled apart, again, when his mom said, “Don’t you two just look cute together.”

Now, those words just made him blush like crazy and then mom carried her things down stairs while, after a protest from him, Smith carried his down for him. Then Smith left to go and get the Audi, whilst he and mom sat down to wait.


	17. Family

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Wartest du ? Kommen Sie ?” - “What are you waiting for ? Come on !”
> 
> “Kommen Sie oder, bleiben Liebe ?” - “Are you coming or staying love ?”
> 
> “Ich habe bereits das erste getan, und ich bin noch, wund, geben Sie mir bitte eine Minute, meine Leben.Sie sind wirklich zu viel, nicht, dass ich Acht habe.” - “Considering that I have already done the first and I’m still sore, please give me a minute, my Life. You really are too much, not that I mind.”
> 
> “Mein schöne Max, meine lieber Sonne.” - “My dear Max, my beautiful sun.”
> 
> “Was ist mit mir ?” - “What about me ?”
> 
> “Ja, wir lieben euch auch, Cole.” - “Yes, we love you too, Cole.”

Neo groaned softly as Smith shook him and whispered, “Neo, Neo, love, wake up.”

“No-o, tired.”

“Not that, my Life, but something different. Don’t you want to go meet our Granddaughters ?”

_‘Wha ? Grand…Granddaughters ? **Granddaughters !** ’_

He jerked up to look at Smith, “Really ? Really ? I thought Rebecca wasn’t due until next week.”

Smith smiled faintly before he agreed, “Yes, really, Cole just called a few seconds ago.”

_‘Oh, my God. Oh, my God !!! We’re Granddads. **Granddads !** ’_

As he replied, he was so excited that he lapsed back into the German his Grandmom had taught him all those years ago, “Wartest du ? Kommen Sie !”, he fell off the bed to land on the floor. Hai bounded into the room and started running around him. Too excited to care about grace, he scrambled up, tripped over Hai and got up again as Smith laughed, to scour the room for his own clothes.

When he found Smith’s clothes, he threw them in the general direction of the bed, as he picked up his own. Eventually, he found all of his and pulled them on before he turned to look at Smith who still lay on the bed. Eager to get going he started tapping a foot and raised an eyebrow, “Kommen Sie oder, bleiben Liebe ?”

That was when Hai jumped on him, the black paws on his hips as Hai started to lick him.

_‘Just lucky that Smith doesn’t need a translation. Come on, love, talk it back. Yes ! I love it when he does that.’_

All the while Smith had pushed himself up and replied, the dark drawl lazier than usual, “Ich habe bereits das erste getan, und ich bin noch, wund, geben Sie mir bitte eine Minute, Leben. Sie sind wirklich zu viel, nicht, dass ich Acht habe.”

Hai let go of him and he rolled his eyes as Smith walked over to the closet and pulled on a clean suit. When they started out of the bedroom, Hai rushed between their legs and down the stairs to sit by the front door.

“Sorry, Hai, but they don’t let regular dogs into the hospital. You’ll have to stay here.”

He patted Hai as the dejected dog whined before he walked to lie down in front of the living room entrance. Smith had pulled his suit-jacket on and as had long been their routine passed him his black jacket. They raced out the door and everything blurred until they stood in front of Rebecca’s room with Cole. As they entered, Rebecca looked up from the girls, tired but happily, at them.

He asked, “How’re you doing, Rebecca ?”

His son’s wife smiled brightly and replied, “We’re all good, Mr. Anderson.”

_‘Aye, whatever happened to the days when she’d call me Tom ? At least, after I told Smith the second time that my name was Neo he actually listened. Ah, well, bigger things.’_

Cole moved to stand beside Rebecca’s bed, lifted one of the girls and brought her over. Giant, bright-gray eyes blinked up at them as Cole said, proudly, “Dad, Father, this is Michelle Anderson…your oldest Granddaughter.”

Then they walked to the bed as Michelle started to squirm, when Rebecca took Michelle, Cole picked up their youngest Granddaughter.

“This is Lucy Anderson, dear God, aren’t they just beautiful ?”

_‘Michelle ? They named her after my mom, she’d have loved to see this. Well, at least, they named Lucy after Rebecca’s mom too, so Michelle’s not alone in the dead women’s name club. All that really matters is our family’s a lot bigger now then it used to be.’_

Lucy opened her eyes to reveal one dark-gray eye and the other dark-brown.

**End Flashback**

Max shook his head as the memory faded and Cecil’s voice said, “C’mon, your new just let us…help you out.”

A female voice replied, “No, thanks, I’m fine…hey ! Let go.”

He rushed into the alley where he’d first met Smith to see Cecil, Brandon and Dillon cornering a long, black-haired and pale-skinned girl.

“Cecil ! Get away from her. Now.”

Cecil laughed and gestured at Brandon and Dillon. “Teach him the lesson that was so rudely interrupted last time.”

_‘Nice way to treat a former friend, Cecil, no matter how many years ago it was.’_

As the gray-eyed twins rushed him, he thought, _‘I hope this’ll work a lot better than it did with dad.’_

He ducked under an uppercut to shove Dillon off-balance and took his remaining leg out from under him, Dillon fell with a satisfying thud.

‘ _Holy shit ! It worked for once, this reincarnation stuff is great. Plus, all my weeks old injuries finished healing last night without scaring or anything - must have something to do with that Prime Program-thingy been reactivated. Now, let ’ s see if we can ’ t let the One out for a bit. ’_

Just like that Neo’s old instincts, his, old instincts had him getting up before he was running vertically up the wall and back flipped off it. The world slowed just before he kicked Brandon in the center of his back and the red-haired teen crashed to the ground. Time continued, he landed in a crouch and rose smoothly to turn and look at the girl. Then he stared in shock, dimly he noticed that Cecil had fled, the main thing was one thought: ‘ _She looks just like Lucy ! She could be Lucy’s identical twin when Lucy was her age.’_

The girl blinked those different colored eyes as she exclaimed, “That was totally cool ! I thought people only stuff like that in, well, movies or crap like that. Oh, I‘m Sarah, Sarah Edmontons by the way.”

_‘Sarah ? The girl the Agents want me to talk to about the Prime Program is my own Great-Granddaughter. Oh, my fucking God, I have a Great-Granddaughter and I’m eighteen ! No, I’m not, but I am, but I’m not. Argh, who the hell knows what my real age is now. This reincarnation stuff is hell in the relationships department - my son is now my teacher, my love is, but sort of isn’t, still my love and now I’ve got a Great-Granddaughter who’s the same age as I am physically. At least, my relationship with Hai hasn‘t changed at all.’_

He barely kept in a shudder of disgust as Sarah gave him a flirty smile. For a second, all he could do was shake his head in disbelief before he responded, “It was nothing, Sarah. I’m N-Max, Max Jameson, it’s nice to meet you.”

Sarah walked up and shook his hand, “You too, Max. So, you know those guys ?”

“Unfortunately, yeah, their some of the local bullies. Well, Cecil used to be my friend in like Gr. 3 until he met Brandon and Dillon the other two guys. Err, any way’s, so…what’re you doing here, Sarah ?”

Sarah ran a hand through her hair, before she answered, “I just transferred into the high school down the road, uh, about a…block or something, I don’t know.”

“Yeah, I go there too, why don’t you come with me ? I can show you where your classes are too, since I’m sure we’ll have a few together, at least.”

When they reached the school, his heart skipped a beat as he saw the Audi parked in the lot, with Cole, Mr. Anderson, Cole ?, along with Smith standing and talking outside it.

He paused and looked over his shoulder to Sarah, “Could you excuse me for a moment ? I need to talk to Mr. Anderson about something.”

Sarah looked confused, but nodded, “Yeah, go ahead, I’ll wait.”

As he said,“Hmm, thanks.”, he started to jog over to his love and his son, or was it former lover and former son ?

Either way, it made him smile as Smith called, ““Mein schöne Max, meine lieber Sonne.”

Dear God, he’d always loved Smith’s voice even when it’d annoyed him that Smith had called him, “Mr. Anderson.”

Cole/Mr. Anderson questioned, “Was ist mit mir ?”

He replied, “Ja, wir lieben euch auch, Cole.”

Cole smiled and switched to English, “Good, I’m going to talk to Ja-Miss. Dane. Don’t forget that Algebra paper. See you in a few.”

Smith handed him the paper, he half-folded it and stuck in his jeans pocket as he answered, “What are you, Cole, my first dad ? Crap, dad was a lot better than the fuck-hole I’ve got now. Hmm, yeah.”

_‘God, this is so freaking weird talking to him like this. Since for two years, now, I’ve been thinking of him as my teacher and not my son.’_

Cole shook his head as he walked away, he and Smith watched Cole until he was out of earshot and then Smith wondered, “Who is that girl you walked up with ?”

It made his heart beat in his throat as he put his hands on Smith’s shoulders and leaned slightly up to whisper, “Sarah Edmontons, that’s who she is. More importantly, she’s our **Great-granddaughter !** ”

His hair ruffled and his ear warmed as Smith gasped in incredulity, followed by, “I know she’s supposed to transfer here, but where ever did you meet her ?”

“In that alley where we met for the first time, this time. Cecil, Brandon and Dillon were harassing her or something. Unlike all the other times I had to escape, this time I actually kicked their asses for once.”

“I’m glad you finally managed it. Perhaps, I should let you go, Morpheus is here, now and talking with Sarah.”

For a few seconds, he lay his chin on Smith's shoulder,” I don’t want to, though, I want to stay, here, like this.”

Smith pushed him back a bit, “Go on, I’ll be home later or I can just visit yourself and Mrs. Jameson at the Silver Hawk.”

“I like that last option best, see you later then.” With that said, he left Smith and went to talk to Matt and Sarah.

Matt smiled as he walked up, “Hey, Max. Sorry about forgetting the reminding bit, did you get a bit of…help ?”

Got the paper out and ran a hand through his hair, as he laughed, “Not that kind of help, Matt, but yes, Smith showed me what I was doing wrong and with that help I finished it from memory.”

Sarah wondered,“What sort of assignment was it ?”

“An Algebra thing for Miss. Dane, we should get you to the office before Matt and I get our stuff.”

His Great-granddaughter nodded and they went to the office.

_‘At least, it’ll be Cecil and the others who are late now, instead of me.'_

It turned out that Sarah had the same schedule as Matt and himself except for having gym when they had algebra. So, he and Matt got their things and showed Sarah to Cole/Mr. Anderson’s classroom. They sat down with Sarah taking the place that would’ve been Trinity’s if she still sat with them. _‘I can’t believe that she’s been avoiding me now. She can’t avoid looking at or talking to me forever.’_

After Mr. Anderson entered and started getting ready the bell rang. He twisted around to look at the door and smiled as Cecil, Dillon and Brandon rushed in. Brandon and Dillon glared at him and then hissed as they past him, “You got lucky, freak.”

It was impossible for him to quell the rising surprise when Cecil didn’t say a word to him, but just sat down at his spot.

_‘It‘s great that Dillon and Brandon aren’t dead, still, where’d Cecil disappear to during the fight ? Why’s he acting so odd ? It’s not at all like him.’_


	18. Love

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Du bist der einzige, der gesagt wird sie liebte mich und sah mich an, als es ist egal, was sie wollen. Ernsthaft, was ist es mit Jungs, die größer sind als ich fast immer sagen : "Ich bin größer und wir tun, was ich will oder es ist vorbei." Ich Boden, die ein Problem wird es nicht sein wird Smith nicht? " - “You’re the only one who’s said they loved me and looked at me like it doesn’t matter what they want. Seriously what is it with guys who are bigger than me almost always saying, “I’m bigger and we do what I want or it’s over.” I don’t bottom, that won’t be a problem will it Smith ?”
> 
> “Auch nein, das wird kein Problem sein.” - “Oh no, that will not be a problem at all.”

Smith couldn’t help drifting into a fond memory as he stopped in front of the Heart O’ the City Hotel.

**Flashback**

He shifted as he eyed the end of the Heart O’ the City Hotel’s second floor hallway. Even he could not repress his own nerves he smoothed his hair as the time slowly ticked by and Neo still failed to appear there.

_‘Don’t tell me he has stood me up on our first date. Did he stand me up because I am not good at kissing and he thinks that equals sexual experience as well ? Never mind that it actually does, but Neo seemed as eager for this date as I was. No, it must be because of Morpheus or something…something went wrong again, let him be okay.’_

His heartbeat pounded in his ears at the sound of rushed footsteps on the steps. A second later, Neo raced around the corner and slid into the wall, the laughter that left him was happy, but nervous. Now, Neo walked toward him, the pale skin was flushed from exertion. When the black-haired man reached him, Neo slumped against the wall across from him and held up a hand.

Neo gasped, “Smith…I’m sorry…God, Morpheus was…being a bitch.”

**Flashback**

Smith glared at Morpheus as the half-delirious man muttered, “Pretty…”, and his clouded gaze drifted to the far side of the room.

Really all those months ago, he would not have minded if he and Mr. Anderson had ended up having a few more minutes to themselves in that office. He’d thought the little human was funny if only at sarcasm.

Morpheus laughed and muttered, as his eyes rolled almost white, “You’ll never.”

Those two words had made him cuff Morpheus hard in the side of the head. A pity it didn’t kill him, though he hadn’t known exactly why he’d wanted that at the time.

**End Flashback**

He walked up to cup the pale cheek and stroked it as he replied, “Do not worry, it is not your fault.”

At his name, his gaze had started drifted down the lithe body that was currently clothed in a perfectly tailored, all black, tie-less suit.

_‘At least, now I can look all I want without hiding it. Finally, no Morpheus to disparage me over my then unconscious efforts. God, Neo is beautiful and Iwant him. I want that pretty body over me, in me.’_

Neo, who had just noticed his look, blushed a deep red and said, “It’s odd, you looking at me like that.”

“How is it odd ?”

It surprised him when Neo turned to German, "Du bist der einzige, der gesagt wird sie liebte mich und sah mich an, als es ist egal, was sie wollen.,” Neo’s eyes turned angry and the man muttered, pale hands coming to rest on his shoulders. “Ernsthaft, was ist es mit Jungs, die größer sind als ich fast immer sagen : “Ich bin größer und wir tun, was ich will oder es ist vorbei.” Ich **Boden** , die ein Problem wird es nicht sein wird Smith nicht? "

It was Neo who looked surprised, the slightly fuller bottom lip dropping, as he replied, “Auch nein, das wird kein Problem sein.”

“Well, that’s unexpected, but, seriously you **don** **’t** want to top me ? It’s depressing how many times I’ve heard that lie in the past five, six years.”

“I promise I do not. Would you believe that I have **no** experience of any kind ?”

“What ? That should be impossible.”

That made him reply, “Why do you think that ?”

Neo moved slightly back to make an encompassing gesture at him, “Well, well, just **look** at you, Smith. Along with, dear God, what you **sound** like. You should’ve had people throwing themselves at you all the time.”

Found his eyebrows rising as he parroted, “What I sound like ? I never considered my voice to be audio erotic.” When he said the last he noticed the visible shiver from Neo and continued, deliberately deepening and roughening his tone, “…Though that would explain quite a few odd looks whenever I talked for the first time.”

A shudder and Neo replied, as the long lashed eyes swept over him, the soft voice unconsciously roughened in response, “Smith, stop it or we’ll never get to supper on time. Where are we going anyway ? Somewhere fancy, huh ?”

_‘I don’t want him to object to going to Marian’s since it’s one of the most expensive places in the city. It is just an added bonus that Marian’s is not owned by the Merovingian. If we went to one of his resturaunt’s it is doubtless, the Information-Trafficker would try to pull some sort of stun or embarrass me in front of Neo in someway.’_

 He shifted slightly, before he hummed, “You could say that.”

“I don’t know if I like that tone of yours, Smith.”

Smiled as he countered with a wink and an innuendo, “Well, you’ll just have to take it out on me later.”

A laugh from Neo who muttered, “Maybe I will.”, as he turned around.

**End Flashback**

' _The night of firsts and what an amazing night it was. I would love to have that all over again._ _’_

Smith shook himself as he walked past the building, full of bad and good memories, with a smile toward the Silver Hawk. A few minutes later, he knocked on Max and Mrs. Jameson’s door. After Max called, “Come in, Smith.”, he opened the door and walked into the blue room with it’s dark-gray carpet and the two beige blanketed beds.

Max lay on top of one, the blond-hair was still messy, but this time it looked slightly wet. A pale hand was wrapped around a pencil and the dark-brown eyes were back on the sketchbook.

“You can see the code now ?”

At that those eyes flickered up to him, a briefly embarrassed and faintly disgusted look flitted over Max’s face, “Ye-ah, but, I could do without seeing **other** old-people having sex. My own faint memories of this,” Max briefly lifted the book so he could see it and he remembered that being one of the time‘s before Neo‘d started to forget things, “me being old and us I don’t care, but, other people I could **really** do without.”

He nodded in understanding and walked to sit on the bed beside the pretty boy. “So, what’s our Great-granddaughter like ?”

Max/Neo smiled slightly, “Sarah’s great, she’s just like Lucy, well, her mom and her great-grand mom. She’s smart, she doesn’t take crap from anybody and she can charm damn near any girl she likes, even Trinity. Boy, am I glad she didn‘t mean that flirty smile she gave me before. Seriously, I might not look it or physically be it in anyway now, but I‘m still mentally, at least, her great-granddad that‘d just be disgusting.”

“Quite, but, you still like me don’t you ?”

Max/Neo pushed himself up, he noticed then that Max was shirtless, to slid a hand along his sleeve up his arm to his shoulder, “I do, you’ve hardly changed at all. The thing is, do you just love the old me, Neo, or Max, the current me or both ?”

The blond teen looked up at him, pensive as he replied, “I can’t really explain it, well, I suppose that I should try to explain for your sake. Neo, I’ve always loved you since our first joke in the office, not that I realized it then, like I told you so long ago. You refused to give up Morpheus, even though you didn’t know him, when nearly any other human would have taken that deal. I loved it, when I saw you again and you were physically stronger than before, suddenly you were just as attractive physically, well, meta-physically as mentally. Then, there’s you as Max, you’re different, slightly angrier and more prone to swearing, but with how you’ve grown up it’s excusable. Still, because of your so-called dad, you’re even stronger mentally then you were as Neo. In short, I don‘t care who you are, I still love you whether as my Life or my Sun Neo, Max or some combination of both. I love you.”

At that Max/Neo leaned against him in relief, “Good, that’s good. Okay, but, what’d you think of my hair ?”

His gaze drifted out the window to see the edge of the Heart O’ the City Hotel as he ran a hand through the wet strands. “It’s still as messy as ever, if that‘s what you mean.”

A half-hearted scoff and shoulder nudge, before the teen leaned up to look at him, “That’s not what I meant and you know it, Ice-eyes.”

“Ah, you meant - ‘what do I think of your being blond‘, now ? I don’t think there’s much difference, after all it’s not as if you’ve had your intelligence lowered because of it.”

Soft lips brushed against his and he sighed as Max/Neo’s tongue slid over his lips, he parted his lips to suck on that tongue. A soft laugh as he let go and the hand on his shoulder half-pushed his suit-jacket off, before it slid down to his side as he was pushed onto the bed. During that Max’s other hand had started pulling at the knot in his tie, as he let his hands drift down Max’s back to caress and pulled the teen closer. Desperation evident in the series of deeper kisses as jean-clad hips ground against his.

Max pulled away to breathe deeply and for a second, he hummed as he admired the slim, hairless chest. Slowly, as Max shivered he slid his hands over the pale sides to drift over the two faintly raised and even paler scars. He leaned up to press his lips against the right one, before licking and nipping his way across the shivering muscles to the left scar and muttered like he always had before, “You’re beautiful.”

Neo responded with his usual, “Am not.” A few seconds later, he skimmed down to lick and tease at the button of the loose, dark jeans as he slid a finger along the zipper’s seam. A shuddering, hitched movement followed by a sharp, “Fuck, Smith !”

He just hummed in response then time blurred into a haze of warmth, fullness and pleasure. Another mumbled, “I love you, Smith.”, accompanied the slowly calming breath against the back of his shoulder.

“I love you too, Max, Neo.”

They both startled at the sudden knock on the door and Mrs. Jameson’s, “Max ?”

His gaze darted to the blue walls on either side of the doorframe as the peaceful atmosphere further ruined by a hiss of, “Crap ! What‘d we do ?”, from the blond.

“She will know either way, why hide it ?”

“She’s my mom, or I think like she still is, damn it and she **doesn’t** need to see you. Mind you’ve doubtlessly got a lot more than that limp dick, but you‘re still my lover, not hers.”

It made him chuckle as he climbed out of the bed and pulled the scattered clothes together, like Neo had when they‘d found out about Michelle and Lucy. Yet, instead of just giving Max his own clothes, he passed Max his dress-shirt while he pulled on Max’s jeans. He sat down beside the inch shorter teen, just as the door opened.


	19. Embarrass

Smith was calm as Max was suddenly burying a very red face into his shoulder when Mrs. Jameson smiled, her dark-brown eyes glowing, and asked, “Good ?”

_‘He’s had in the memorized accumulative how many years of sexual experience ? Over thirty and yet he gets put back into the body of a teenager and he turns awkward about it ?’_

“It was more than adequate, it was-”

Max raised his head with a mock offended, “Are you saying I’m horrible ? You better not, Adrian Smith, because you sure as Hell got off on me. If you complete that sentence I‘m shoving you out of this bed.”

_‘Huh, that’s the first time he’s called me ‘Adrian Smith’ in far too long.’_

“You didn’t let me finish…”

A suddenly wicked smile and, “Yes, I did, you went second that was…just a few minutes ago. Or did you forget already ?”

_‘A joke about his own past life forgetfulness ? Or one about regaining his memories ?’_

He chuckled slightly, “No, I didn’t forget and I **was** going to say something nice about your abilities. Considering you don’t want me saying what I was going to, I suppose, now, that I should say that you’re an absolute terror in bed and not in a good way.”

It made him wince as he hit the gray carpeted floor, “My ass is still sore from you thank you very much, you don‘t need to make it worse.” _‘Amazing how I remember the first morning feeling a lot better than this.’_

**Flashback**

He opened his eyes to see an off-white wall in front of his face, a warm blanket wrapped around his body. _‘Hmm, something feels different. It feels…nice, ah, what **is** this feeling ?’_

His gaze drifted over to a closed bathroom door as he shifted slightly and a faint echo of pain and pleasure travelled down his spine. The mahogany door opened and Neo emerged the lithe body completely bare. His eyebrows rose, ‘ _It did actually happen ? I did not dream it after all ?’_

A few of his memories from the later part of last night flooded his mind - soft lips on his as he twined his hands into the messy hair, the pale-skin, black-hair and dark-eyes contrasting beautifully in the moonlight as he flinched and gasped at the sudden pain and discomfort. Neo’s voice, soft and rough between kisses, “Ssh, ssh, I’m sorry, love, you’re fine, I promise it’ll get easier.” The warmth that eventually eclipsed the pain and turned it into a pleasure he’d never been able to imagine before it actually happened.

Neo walked up to crouch beside him, the long-lashed eyes blinking as the man asked, “Are you sure you’re all right, Smith ? I mean, it’s not for everybody and I wouldn’t, you don’t have, gah, I can’t talk today.”

It made him laugh and he leaned forward to kiss Neo and answered after, “I am fine and it was…not adequate, not perfect, I actually have no words.”

“As long as you don’t say I’m horrible, I’m fine. So, morning after do I still call you ‘Adrian’ like at supper or back to just Smith ?”

“Not horrible, an absolute terror…in a good way. As for names, I don’t mind, but if we are going to be seen by regular people, it would be odd if you didn’t call me by a first name. Especially, considering that you allowed me to call you ‘Tom’ yesterday.”

** End Flashback **

Smith shook himself back into the dark-blue room, as Mrs. Jameson’s black eye-brows furrowed and then raised, as she looked down at him, “Well, that explains why you’re wearing his pants, Mr. Smith, but still, I didn’t think you would prefer that. You don’t really seem the type, I thought Max…”

While he got up, Max groaned before exclaiming, “Mom ! You thought about that way too much. God, this is so embarrassing.”

He moved to, again, sit beside Max on the, now, even messier beige blanket, and slid a hand over Max’s shoulder, “It might be embarrassing, love, but, she’s not screaming at you or kicking you out, at least. She’s being a lot more understanding than your ‘father’ and some others would be.”

“I know but, it’s just…disturbing knowing she thought about me having sex. I mean everybody else‘s had a better romantic life than me. Even Sarah had two boyfriends by the time she was in gr.10 and well, considering that dad scared Pete off, Smith‘s the first one I‘ve ever had.”

Mrs. Jameson asked, “Who’s this Sarah girl ? I don’t think you mentioned her yesterday.”

“Yeah, I only met her today after I saved her from Cecil, Brandon and Dillon. Her name‘s Sarah Edmontons.”

Mrs. Jameson ran a hand through her hair and shook her head, “I can’t believe you used to be friends with Cecil seeing how he’s treated you over the last few years. Anyway, hmm, I used to know a woman called Lucy Edmontons she used to be an Anderson. Lucy had a daughter named Sarah, I’d take you over to see her sometimes Max when you were really little and I doubt you’d remember it. Especially, since she disappeared when you two were three. What does Sarah look like ?”

Max gasped and he felt his eyes widen in surprise as they turned to look at each other. Max nodded,

“Uh, she’s got long black-hair, pale-skin and one brown eye, the other’s gray. Does that sound like what Sarah used to look like to you ?”

“Oh, yes, it does. You know Lucy had a set of Granddads, but one of them died and she thought the other one wouldn’t want to meet Sarah, since she looked a lot like her Grandpa Anderson. I wish she would have, I mean he never even got to see her once before she vanished.”

_‘What ? **What ?** Even with Neo gone, I would have loved to have see Sarah, before she disappeared and well before yesterday. Why did Lucy and Michelle even stop visiting ? Do we have a Great-grandson somewhere too ? If we do, he had better **not** be part of this too. This is already too confusing of an affair, no matter that it is also an even **more** confused family affair.’_

A long time ago, Neo and himself had been able to use their ’connection’ to see random things, events and or memories that the other had experienced, along with occasional thoughts. This time that didn’t even have to happen, Max and himself both knew that they had to find Lucy to find out why Sarah had disappeared and why she’d appeared alone.

_‘Tomorrow could turn out to be an interesting day.’_


	20. Age

He wandered down the white-hallway, looking at the gray carpet under his feet. _'_ _What am I doing here ? This isn ’t right, I shouldn’t be here…wherever here is.’_

When he came to an intersecting hallway, he looked down it and then his instincts went off. _‘ Danger, danger, knife, kill, no.’_

It was a longer hallway and down the halfway point were two men, one shorter and black-haired while the other was slightly taller and gray-haired. The younger man was ’sneaking’ up on the older one with a knife. It surprised him when he found himself grabbing and twisting the man’s arm behind his back so that the knife fell, during which he swept the legs out from under the idiot.

A gasp of pained surprise from the youngest man, the sound was loud enough that the gray-haired man turned around and gasped, “Jeremy ? What were you **doing** ? ”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw movement, a dark-brown haired and tan-skinned man of about thirty-something had picked up the knife, “Trying to murder you is what he was doing.,” The man glanced his way with oddly familiar bright-blue eyes, “Are you all right ?”

Neo nodded, “Yeah, Ad, I’m fine. You want to take him ?”

Smith smiled slightly as he grabbed Jeremy’s shoulder tightly and handed him the knife. When he moved slightly away he clenched involuntarily trembling fingers tighter around the hilt and watched in undisguised envy as Smith’s steady hands smoothly picked up and swung Jeremy face-first into the wall.

_‘ Oh, what I wouldn’t give to have that co-ordination, again. Or, at least, black-hair instead of white, despite Smith saying, “Age is nothing, love, even for you, my Life. I don’t care and neither should you.” Even if it was only for two seconds, two seconds without any trembling, involuntary joint-locks or anything.’_

Then he walked back up to wave the knife an inch in front of Jeremy’s face, light-brown eyes were scared as he growled, “Do you know what I would’ve done with this knife when I was your age, you fucking punk ?”

_‘ Ironic that I’m calling someone else a punk, like a lot of those SWAT officers always called me before I killed them.’_

Jeremy shook his head and looked like he was about to piss himself, he couldn’t deny that Smith’s, sometimes, tendency to gloat had rubbed off slightly as he hummed, “You see since I can’t…demonstrate…I would have stabbed you in the back and then sliced across your stomach just to be sure. Try to kill your own family, you make me sick !”

When Jeremy snarled back, “Fuck you, old man.”, Smith slammed the youngest man back into the wall a second time, before there was the sound of that Desert Eagle being readied and he found himself waiting for that sound.

Smith hissed, “If you say that again, I will shoot you and it will be in a **very** uncomfortable spot. ”

“Everybody get your hands up and get on the ground, now !”

Slowly, as his joints protested the movement he got down.

**End Flashback**

Max laughed as the words echoed into the present as the black-leather clad copper-top shoved the Berretta in his face.

“ No, you want to know why ? ”

_‘ Come on, ask me. Go on and ask me.’_

The red-haired man smirked, “Fine, bitch, go on and tell me.”

_‘ Yes, oh, he just made this far too easy.’_

In answer, he focused as he jumped to do a quadruple front-kick and as he landed, he slammed a palm into the man’s chest. He let the focus go and landed with a quip, as the man crashed into, and dented, the alley wall, “Well, I never said I’d…tell…you, bitch.”

Three feet away, Michelle in her silver-jacket, blue-shirt and black-pants, burst out laughing at his one-liner, he smiled as he turned to his oldest granddaughter. While he’d been saving Michelle, Smith had gone off tailing the second would-be mugger who’d targeted Lucy. 

A few seconds later, when Michelle looked at him as he walked up, she asked, “G-granddad ?”

Slowly, he reached out and brushed a hand over her cheek, just like when it was storming and she was scared, except that Hai was miles away and Smith was with Lucy, he replied,

“ Ssh, I ‘ m here, Elle, I ’ m here. What can I do ? ”

When he said that she collapsed on him and burst into tears, he stroked her hair gently as she mumbled,

“ I-I m-missed you, I ‘ m s-so sorry, Granddad. He didn ‘ t le-et me or I would ‘ ve gone, h-he wouldn ‘ t even let me call Dad, much less Grandfather. It was sunny on your funeral day. ”

Instinct had him brushing his lips over her forehead, “I know, I missed you too. It was good to have your Grandfather with me, but I wish you and the others could’ve been there. I wish I could’ve seen Sarah, someone must skipped updating her or something for her to look like a teen, now. “

Michelle raised her head, the dark-gray eyes reddened, “S-Sarah ? That…can’t be I thought she was dele- I thought she was dead, she went missing years ago.”

He stepped back and shook his head, “No, she’s still alive, I met her yesterday. Sarah looks beautiful and she’s smart.”

From the other end of the alley, Lucy gasped, “She’s alive ? My baby girl’s alive ? How ? T-the Merovingian said he, after he stole her, he sent me that he…deleted her.”

His gaze drifted up to his youngest Granddaughter, Lucy in contrast to Michelle had her hair in a ponytail and wore a dark-blue jacket, silver-shirt and gray-pants.

Then his mind latched onto the second word of the last sentence. _‘Merovingian ? That French asshole, again ? He stole Sarah ? So, either she escaped from him or…he sent her away for some reason. Next thing you know Cecil will be saying he’s in league with that asshole or something. Huh, but why would he have a reason ? He’s got what he wanted now, what he killed Apoc and Switch and Tank for, he’s back in the Matrix. Looks like I’ve got to go find him after lunch or something. Lunch, shit, I’ve got to get back to school.’_


	21. Talk

It’d taken Max ten minutes to run back to the school, when he’d gotten back, Morpheus/Matt had disappeared because he wasn’t in the private study room or Cole’s room, which was open for lunch. So, he’d ended up going to the library, hoping to find either Trinity or Cypher/Cecil.  When he heard Trinity cursing he walked around the corner into the ‘Computers’ section and up to Trinity, “You shouldn’t need to read much, Trinity, you already know most of, if not, all of it.”

The gray-eyed woman glared, “What do you want, Neo ?” and leaned against the birch shelf as sunlight filtered through the picture window beside them.

He raised his hands, as he looked the white and blue-clad former Second-in-Command over. “Look, Trin, just forget what you thought about me, for a second, okay ?”

“Why ? You’ve got Smith, why do you care what I think ?”

“You were my friend for years, before this, before we remembered that’s why. Plus, I need to know, have you seen Cy-Cecil around ? I need to ask him something.”

Trinity sighed and looked from the library shelf to him, “He was in the ‘Mythology’ section I think. Why do you want to forgive him too ?”

A second later, he felt something change in the code and he pulled Trinity down out of the way, just as a bullet flew through the glass behind them. Quickly, he raised his hand to stop the bullets as his gaze flickered into code. It was one of the albino twins that’d tried to steal Cole from himself and Smith.

**Flashback**

He let out a half-surprised gasp as Cole crashed into him, but that wasn’t what made him gasp. That was the pearly/clear, almost smoky, human-like form with razor-sharp teeth that rose up from the street in front of him and solidified into an albino man with white-dreadlocks in a white-suit.

The program said with a faintly British accent, “So, we meet at last. All we want is the boy, Neo, you give the Master what he wants and we won’t bother you again.”

That made him growl, move around Cole and snarl, as he shifted into a stance, “Over my dead body !”

Albino smiled slightly as he flicked open a switch-blade and struck his own little stance, “We were hoping you’d say that. It’s a shame though that Smith refused to help us.”

Time slowed as he focused and rushed at the ghost-like program to throw a flying elbow at him. When the Albino changed into his smoke-like form, his strike passed right through.

_‘Okay, so, a challenge for once and it’s not one that I’m going to loose. Not when my son’s on the line.’_

A second later, pain lashed through his back and he mule-kicked the second guy. There was two of them so what, he‘d dealt with far worse odds than this. The first one had vanished as he spun on his heel and punched the second Albino in the face, part of the silver-shades broke almost exactly like Smith’s had in the train station. A cold silvereye glared at him. He took that opportunity to head butt the man at the distinctive sound of not one, but multiple Desert Eagles firing.

Either Smith or one of his copies, either way one voice was echoing that of all the copies, “Tell the Merovingian to go to Hell because he is **not** **getting** **my son** !”

**End Flashback**

The Albino twin took a hand off his rifle to wave before he ghosted and disappeared into the ground.

As he scrambled up, he lowered his hand and the bullets tinkled to the ground, “Shit, Trin, we need to find Cypher and get the Hell out now !”

“No kidding, where’s Morpheus ?”

He pressed himself against the end of the shelf and leaned out as he whispered, “I don’t know.” Then he was stopping bullets without thinking, two stopped a few inches away from his eye.

_‘Holy fuck ! That was close, what I wouldn’t give for a gun right now. There’s Cypher, he’s alive, at least.’_

A second later, he’d focused and thrown himself into a rolling dive across the floor as bullets followed him. Gasped in pain as a kick connected with his head, it was the other Albino. It surprised him when Cypher jump-punched the Albino in the face.

Gray-eyes glowed as Cypher landed and hissed, “Away, silver.”

Still he smiled as Niobe suddenly appeared behind the bald teen, pushed Cypher out of the way and threw the Albino through the bookshelf. The dark-skinned, brown-eyed former Captain turned vampire still wore her red-leather, alligator patterned trench coat.

“The other twin’s disappeared. It’s good to see you, again, Neo, Trinity. I’m glad you two made up. So, where‘s old A.S. S. hiding ?”

Niobe’s old nickname for Smith which, really should have been A. S. S. P., stood for Arrogant Sackbut Sourpuss . _‘I still don’t know what the Hell a sackbut is, but it sounds funny; plus, Smith can still be an ass sometimes. She must’ve learned that sackbut-thing from Persephone. I’m just glad Persephone persuaded Vlad to change her after Cujo almost killed her when Smith had to go help her because I fell asleep.’_

Trinity chuckled at Smith’s nickname, “What’s that mean ?”

Niobe and he both chorused, “Arrogant Sackbut Sourpuss.”

Cypher asked, “What the Hell’s a sackbut ? It sounds like kicking somebody in the sack and then the ass.”

Niobe shook her head, “No, Cypher it’s a big, Medieval wind instrument.”

Trinity muttered with a grin, “Fit’s him perfectly, I think, he’s a blowhard after all. Still, I don‘t know about the first one. Any word on that, Neo ?”

That made him chuckle and blush at the same time, “Let’s go with he’s pretty well off.”

Cypher muttered, “Well, pretty-boy, is he a **real** blow hard ? I mean, when he took me to Marian’s I knew it was just cause he needed Morpheus, but he actually loved you and he took you there.”

_‘Smith took Cypher, fucking Cypher, to Marian’s ? He’s hearing about this when I see him, again. Marian’s was really damned nice, though.’_

**Flashback**

Neo couldn’t help being nervous as the long blond-haired, female Maitre d’ started looking him over.

“If you don’t mind my saying so Mr. Smith, it looks like you’ve got more pleasant company this time around.”

That made him give Smith a look of confusion and Smith replied, “No, I do not mind because it is true, Tom is much better company. As for that, Tom, it was just a…business transaction.”

_‘He took somebody else here ? Well, it can’t have been too serious, considering what he told me earlier and just said. That’s a good thing, a very good thing. Smith actually just called me ‘Tom’ it’s another miracle.’_

As the Maitre d’ started to lead them to a table he looked around the dark-green walls and noticed because of the nerves the mahogany panels on the bottom of said walls. It felt like everyone stopped their conversations to, at least, look up at himself and Smith as they walked past. It took a second for him to bite his lip and stifle a surprised yelp as a dark-red haired man slapped his ass as they passed by.

_‘Ow, seriously, we’re in one of the fanciest fucking resturaunt’s in the whole city ! Aren’t people supposed to on their **best** behaviour ? Instead of feeling up other people in plain sight ?’_

His gaze was drawn past the potted palm-tree and out the huge windows. There was an equally huge sky unobscured by smog like in the rest of the city, the stars shone brightly. There were two soft chuckles, one from Smith and one from the Maitre d’ and he blushed slightly as he sat down across from Smith. On top of the white-tablecloth were a fancy, slim white-shaded and steel bottomed lamp, beside the lamp was a lit red beeswax candle that was set in a crystal, crystal !, stand.

Smith wondered, “What do you think ?”

“I think I’m going to pass out.”

“Perhaps something to drink would help. Any recommendations, Miss. Jameson ?”

“What do you think about a 1890 Riesling ? It’s one of the best white-wines we have from Mosel, Germany.”

“That sounds fine, thank you.”

As Miss. Jameson left he blinked at Smith, “Do I want to know what any of this is going to cost ?”

“Since I do not want you passing out, no, you do not want to know.”

**End Flashback**

The thought entered Max’s head, _‘Sarah Jameson was part-A.I. and now that I think about it, she looks really similar to Grandmom. Grandmom said she was adopted into the Mason family before she married Granddad/Raphael. Does everyone from my past-life have a part in my current life ? There’s Smith, Morpheus, Trinity, Niobe and even Cypher that sure seems like almost everybody. The only ones missing are Apoc, Switch and David.’_

For some reason he/Neo blurted, “Cypher, why’d you kill Apoc ?”

Brown-eyebrows rose and fell, “I was jealous that Apoc only ever had eyes for you. Whenever you’d come in or be training if he wasn’t in there with you, he’d be watching you. All because of you, he’d never notice me, and then I started noticing you too and I hated you even more than before. Now, some weird French guy‘s, apparently, hiding him in his fancy house somewhere.”

Trinity said in a tone of understanding, “That’s why you said, “Neo’s eyes…those big, pretty eyes.” It wasn’t just because you were taunting me, it was because you wanted him too.”

“Trinity, you Cecil…and Apoc ? Why did…how could so many people have crushes on/be in love with me and I didn’t notice ?”

A dark chuckle and then Smith’s hands landed on his shoulders, “You happen to be oblivious to love unless it comes up and bites your very nice ass.”

Niobe snarked, “Oh, go get another Matrix you two lovebirds.”

Everyone, even Smith, laughed as the police entered the library.

_‘We’ll find you Apoc, whether you’re alive or not, you’re still my friend. Huh, another Matrix, I need to find Sarah too because nobody wants **another** Matrix. This one is good enough/fucked up enough to work perfectly, it doesn‘t need to rip itself apart.’_


	22. Similar

Neo blinked as he woke from his afternoon nap at the sound of a…explosion ?, in the kitchen. _‘ What’s going on ? Is it those ghost twins again ? Where’s Hai ?’_

He rushed out of the bedroom and jumped off the top of the stairs, flipping and pulling a three-point landing, before he almost ran into the kitchen. When he saw what was really happening he burst out laughing at the scene; Smith, Cole, Hai and the entire kitchen were absolutely covered in flour.

Cole waved a hand, “Hi, Dad, Father’s showing me cookies or, uh, flour.” as Hai gave an almost laugh-like growl and Smith gave an embarrassed cough.

As he walked into the room he brushed flour off of Hai as the Wolf Hound approached him, and approached the table while Smith muttered under his breath, “Little smart ass.”

Brushed flour off both of them as he replied, “He’s our son, what’d you expect ? The door was open.”

Smith wiped flour out of his eyes, “Point taken, still, you and your doors, my Life.”

“Me and **my** doors ? I think it ’s the other way around, Ice-eyes. So, what happened ? It sounded like something exploded.”

“The bag refused to open, so I tried a bit harder and it, ah, resulted in what you see before you.”

It made him face-palm as he once again stifled laughter, “Did you forget scissors are a thing ? They do exist you know, they‘re not like unicorns.”

“What do you mean they don’t exist ? Of course they exist, they hide themselves like the werewolves by assuming ‘human’ form like the rest of us A.I.”

**End Flashback**

Flour and unicorns was what Max thought of when the hospital started to glitch the ceiling/wall fell in with a shower of white tile/installation as a…horse, or was it a unicorn ?, ran past his and Cecil’s hospital room twice.

It’d taken hours before the police had released them from questioning, though they’d been treated at the same time - Cecil for a broken finger and himself for a mild concussion. Part of him couldn’t help wondering if it was the concussion that made him think, _‘ A real unicorn ? I suppose this glitching/falling apart is what happened should’ve happened all those years ago after Smith and I said, “I love you.” ? Huh, if Doc Morris had stood there just a second longer, she’d probably be dead now.’_

Cecil hissed, “Fuck, my leg.”

He got off his bed and leaned over Cecil, a piece of tile had just cut into the bald teen’s jeans and leg. A second later, he’d pulled the piece of tile out and while glimpsing the code repaired the damage. _‘ Since they don’t know it was there it won’t matter, unlike my concussion.’_

He muttered, “C’mon, Cecil we’ve got to get out of here.”

“How the Hell are we gonna do that ? Bejesus sake, man, we’re trapped.”

“I’m the One remember ? You can get the tile and stuff, I‘ll get the wall.” With that he got up and walked over to the now blocked off door and started pulling away the bigger chunks of wall.

“Just our luck, huh ? First we get shot at and now the Matrix’s going to Hell.”

“Yeah, exactly what I was thinking, now get off your fucking ass and help me.”

As Cecil walked up to start clearing away tile the former traitor wondered, “Yeesh, since when have you ever sworn, Neo ?”

“Since I got to this life.”

“Hey, you remember how we met ? In this life I mean ?”

“Yeah, we were in Kindergarten and Jose Marten was pushing me around. You walked up and punched him in the face hard, or, at least, as hard as a kid could. It was before I met Matt and Trin and you met Dillon and Brandon.”

After that they worked in silence as he remembered the Oracle’s words from his last death that Smith could’ve given into darkness, that Smith could’ve killed him a second time. _‘ What would that have looked like ? If I’d never died because of that Sentinel and Smith had never admitted he loved me ?’_

Since he knew that Smith liked rain as much as he liked snow, in his imagination of the scenario it was a downpour. As he walked down the main-street the copies of Smith behind him closed in, cutting off any hope of a possible, but not happening, escape.

Smith walked to stop a few feet away from him, “Mr. Anderson, so nice to see you, again. We missed you, didn’t you miss us ?”

“Well, I could’ve gone without nearly getting my skull bashed in and sure, I missed you too, love.”

Suppressed the shiver as the dark laugh echoed in his head, “Ah, for that I **might** actually regret killing you. ”

“Yeah, because that would make me feel so much better about dying. Get on with it already you arrogant asshole.”

Smith rushed at him and he threw a three-hit strike which Smith either dodged or parried and punched him. The force of the punch threw him back onto the street, then Smith was straddling him, a head tilt followed by, “Good-bye, Mr. Anderson.”

Cecil’s voice broke through his imagining with, “Yes, we’re free !”

They walked out of the room and as Cecil headed for the exit, he looked over at the elevators. People were scattered around some were bleeding, most were out cold and covered in tile and such. There were people screaming for help in the elevators and he started heading toward them.

Someone whispered, “Help.” and he turned to look down at Doctor Morris. The dark-skinned doctor had a piece of tile stuck in the side of her neck. He crouched down beside her and, even though she protested, pulled the bloody tile out.

Tried to calm her as he whispered, “Ssh, just let me help.”, and healed her. 

She looked amazed as he wiped blood off on his shirt. Doctor Morris pushed herself up, “Do you know what happened ?”

_‘ It’s not like I can tell her the Matrix is ripping itself apart at the seams because of my previous self’s actions. Come up with something, a bomb or anything.’_

He shook his head, “Probably just an earthquake or something. You should go help people, I‘ll get the elevator people out.”

Seconds later, he’d gone up to the elevator and opened it much farther than a copper-top would’ve been able to. Didn’t really notice the people he was helping until there was a set of bright-green eyes in a tanned face and the woman whispered, “Thanks, Tom. It‘s Marian, Marian Jones, now.”

_‘ David or, rather girl who used to be David. Does that mean he’s not gay if he still likes me, or does it make him, ah, her straight now ?’_

After a confused moment, he reintroduced himself as, “Max, Max Jameson. Nice to see you again…Marian.”

Marian smiled and patted his shoulder as for the second time the police entered the room.


	23. French

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mon petite belles amour - *My beautiful little love.*
> 
> Vous bon marché baisez de la merde de mère et de sa prostituée, vous êtes une cascade de stupidité et la minute en durant baise. *You cheap fuck of mother's shit and of her whore, you are a waterfall of stupidity and minute lasting fucks.*
> 
> Wirklich ist das zwei Stunden lang bumst ... scheißen Esser voll. *Actually, that is two hour long fucks…shit eater.*
> 
> Hölle-Bloom *Hell flower*
> 
> Si vous voulez baiser juste le font déjà, je ne vais pas vous arrêter. - * If you want to fuck just do it already, I’m not going to stop you.*

Incredibly frustrated at the run around they were being given, Max snarled as he slammed a fist down on the white-table cloth, “Let. Him. Go !”

Across the table the Merovingian raised a gray-eyebrow and wagged a finger, “You vant your friend to zee za light o’uf day do you not, Mon petite belles amour, Maximus ?”

With the way that Smith snarled he knew whatever the French-man had just said wasn’t likely something he wanted to know. His gaze drifted down the table to Cole who also looked outraged, the albino twins smiled and waved at them with a laugh from where they were lounging at a side-table.

The coldness that swept through the room was nearly palpable as Smith’s repressed evil/darkness made an appearance in a menacing aura, “He is not doing anything with or to you and if you even **think** that he must, let it suffice to say that I will kill this entire restaurant.”

“Vous bon marché baisez de la merde de mère et de sa prostituée, vous êtes une cascade de stupidité et la minute en durant baise.” *You cheap fuck of mother's shit and of her whore, you are a waterfall of stupidity and minute lasting fucks.*

He laughed at Smith’s retort of, “Wirklich ist das zwei Stunden lang bumst ... scheißen Esser voll.”

The Merovingian replied, “I vas going to zay zat e’ef ‘e vant’s ze Apocalypse back, zhen ‘e can prove ‘imself wiz pazzing za trials…alone. Eh, Maximus ?”

_‘I have to do it otherwise Sarah won’t talk to me about the Prime Program. At least, she admitted to working for the Frenchie. _A, "Beautiful prison.", she called it, I can see that._ ’ _

“Why do you have to call me Maximus, Hölle-Bloom ? My name is Max and fine I‘ll do it.” *Hell flower.*

“Et zounds zo much besser zhen Max…come wiz me.”

As he got up, he replied, “Smith and Cole have to be able to watch if only so you don’t put things in your own favour.”

“Fine, zey can come.”

After Smith, Cole and the Merovingian got up, they walked through a bustling kitchen, up to a pair of double-doors. The oldest A.I. in the room unlocked the doors and they walked into a huge entrance hall. On either side of the room was a grand staircase and on either side of that was two huge walls of weapons, lots and **lots** of weapons.

Couldn’t hold back the grin as he summoned a sheathed long sword and belted it on. Smith stopped and pulled out an extra and holstered Desert Eagle before holding it to him. _‘Huh, when is this day finally going to be over ? I’ve had an uneventful morning, a relatively good afternoon, gotten interrogated twice and now this. I’ll be glad when I can get some sleep.’_

He leaned up on his tiptoes to kiss Smith deeply before accepting the gun. A few seconds later there was, “Si vous voulez baiser juste le font déjà, je ne vais pas vous arrêter.”

That made Smith pull away with an angry growl of, “Perverted old man, it‘s hard to believe you are older than I am with the way you act.”

“Vell, unlike you after all zi’s years I am ezaily bored. As zuch I take my pleazure vhere I can. You, Maximus, vill take ze passage to ze dungeons and find your vay to ze trial rooms. Ze others vill watch ze footage wiz me.”

After a glare at the Merovingian he followed the old man through a door into a mini-library and then the program opened a passage. So, he descended the dark-gray spiralled stone staircase into the dungeons.


	24. Dungeon

Max sheathed the long sword as the brown-haired, black-duster wearing guy fell in a flash of bright blue, electricity- like deletion code. _‘ Cecil didn’t say Apoc’s new name, so here goes. I hope he’s remembered or I’m going to scare him, or sound like an idiot.’_

Still, he had to try so he just shouted, “Apoc ! Apoc, where are you ?”

Apoc‘s incredibly muffled voice called, “Neo ! I’m here !” Following that, there was a pounding and he followed it down the long, dirty metal hallway that was darkened by blood, shivering as he saw the manacles and chains when he turned around the right corner. The red light that fell on the floor in the shape of a bloody cross, he shivered, again, as one of the many blood-curdling screams echoed through the dungeon.

Apoc’s door was recessed, light-wooded, covered in nails and had a slot like any other door as he walked up to it. Concerned because the pounding had stopped, he asked as he pulled open the slot, “Apoc, are you conscious ? Are you seriously injured ?”

Apoc‘s hair was still long, straight and black, but the dark-brown eyes shone from a tanned, female face. She smiled, “I’m fine, Neo. There’s someone else in here, he’s called the Key Maker, and he said the Matrix was falling apart. That can‘t be true, can it ?”

“It is, because of Smith and I and something about the Prime Program not absorbing properly.”

Apoc was understandably confused, “The Prime what ?”

“Ah, never mind I’ll get you out, but I’ve got to pass some trials first or the Frenchie won‘t let you out.”

“Okay, so just don’t die or we‘ll have to start over again.”

“Yeah, I’ll try, see you later.”

With that, he turned away from the door and walked down toward the barred cell-door.

 _‘ Something about this doesn’t feel right.’_ He reached out to open the door, when the wall beside him exploded, he was tackled and they crashed through another wall into a cell.

As he rolled off the guy, he noticed the room, two gray granite slabs/tables were up against the close wall. The farthest was empty, but the closest one had two guys standing over it and a woman chained up. When he got up, the other two turned and lunged at him.

Startled, he grabbed the first by the arms and kicked him in the stomach, releasing him into the other, they tangled in the long, chained manacles that hung from the ceiling before both crashed into the floor. A second later, he sensed something and without looking slammed a fist backward, it connected with a vampire’s face. He spun and kicked the program into the wall. 

The vampires got up and started approaching him, he started backing away toward the woman. Suddenly, he found himself crouching and covering his ears as a high-pitched, piercing wail sounded in the room. He watched in amazement as the vampires were thrown back into the walls, before their bodies flashed blue. When it stopped his ears were still ringing as he turned to look at it’s source, the woman, who had broken her chains. 

She slid off the table and he looked up at her - she wore black-boots, fishnet stockings and a short, red, black and purple corset. Her skin was tanned despite the dungeon, her eyes were brown, though one was covered by a piece black, orange/red-streaked hair and the rest was black, streaked with orange/red and dark purple.

The eye that was visible widened slightly as she said, “Hey, aren’t you…?”

His ears were still ringing and he felt half-deaf as he got up, “I am, but my name is Max, now.”

“Hmm, I would’ve taken them myself, but whatever. Oh, my name is Zephyr, by the way.” With those words, Zephyr walked past him and out through a now broken piece of wall.

When he followed her out, he looked down the hallway to see that she’d already disappeared from sight. She’d likely disappeared into the circular room with the three sets of double-doors. Those doors with their odd symbols in the corners and center drew him in - the farthest pair was golden like the Source code, despite the fact he‘d only ever seen it in Seraph‘s code, the middle set was a fiery-red and the last was emerald green. The green doors had a set of circles on them, the red a cross and the golden to circles filled with a flame. 

_‘ Well, sure I’ve never actually seen the Source myself, but that’s what Smith says it looks like too. Apparently, that’s what part of my code looks like because of the Prime Program.’_

There was a faint almost buzzing-click and he spun on his heel to see the hallway flicker before it turned into a solid gray stonewall. “You **fuck !** You never said anything about trapping me in here, you asshole. ”

“Ah, but I never zaid zat you could leave until you fin-ished zem. Zhen I know zat you vill not try to break ‘im out until you pazz ze trialz.”

He glared at the ceiling, turned and stalked toward the pair of green doors. As he touched them, there was a familiar sense of displacement and an equally familiar white light.

**Flashback**

The last thing Neo remembered was warmth and everything fading slowly to black. Then he looked around confused this wasn’t the home, but it still looked like the Matrix. In fact, because of the wrought iron gates it looked a lot like a…cemetery ? _‘ What the Hell am I doing here ? This doesn’t make any sense. How’d I get here ?’_

Confused, he walked through the gates and along the gravel path.

Rebecca was calling suddenly, “Mr. Anderson, wait up.”

He stopped and turned to see the blond-haired woman running up to him. As she stopped, he noticed, that she wore a dark-red blouse and black-pants, “Whoa, Mr. Anderson what happened to you ?”

“What’d you mean what happened to me ?”

“Ah, you look like when James and I were kids and Cole was sort of a kid. I mean, you’ve got black-hair and you’re, well, young again.”

_‘ What ? I haven’t looked like that for ages. I…I died, didn’t I ? Does that mean Rebecca is too ?’_

“Rebecca, I-I think we’re dead.”

His daughter-in-law shook her head, her green eyes shocked, “No, No ! I can’t be dead, the girls, Cole they need me. I can’t be dead !”

“Well, I guess we’ll just have to see.”

Something pulled him to turn and start walking along, it made him turn at the right branch, and then he stopped in shock at what he saw under the willow tree. Rebecca’s brother, James, along with Cole, Smith and Hai stood under the tree.

James shook his blond, black-streaked head and exclaimed as he kicked at the fence, “ **It ’s not fucking fair !** Why them ? Why my friend and my sister ? What did Rebecca do to deserve getting fucking run over ? ! It’s not fair Goddamn it.”

Suddenly, Hai spun around and started barking, then the Wolf Hound ran up to them. It confirmed it for both of them, when Smith and Cole turned.

Cole asked, “What’s wrong, Hai ?”

Hai whined, before he started pawing at them. Hai just looked so sad, he couldn’t help trying to hug his former present. He didn’t expect Hai to yelp like he’d gotten cold water dumped on him.

Cole and Smith walked up to Hai, Rebecca waved a hand in front of Cole’s face, before running over to wave at her little brother, and they didn’t see it. For a second, he shifted as he straightened up and reached out to brush a hand over Smith‘s cheek.

His love startled and looked around, “Tom ? Why are you still here ? You shouldn‘t be here.”

He couldn’t think of anything to say, but Rebecca somehow was talking to James.

James burst out with, “No, it shouldn’t have been you, Re. It’s not fair, not both of you, at once.”

Rebecca murmured, “You have to accept it, Jamie. You don’t want Mr. Anderson and I to get stuck here because you can’t let go, do you ?”

James’s hazel-eyes filled with tears, “I’d never want you to get stuck here. You don’t deserve that, either.”

That pull faded, there was a sense of displacement and everything turned to warm, white-light.

**End Flashback**

When the light faded, he stood in a burgundy walled room with light-wooded floors. Something felt different and he patted himself over, then realized, _‘ The Hell ? Why is the sword gone ? Well, at least, I’ve still got the Desert Eagle that Smith gave me. Hmm, time to pass the first trial.’_

Still annoyed, he started toward the white-door at the end of the hallway.


	25. Maze

_‘ God, this is confusing. What is that…like the fifteen hundredth door, I’ve run through ? I haven’t even gotten out of the first fucking area yet. The stupid Frenchie is probably laughing his ass off…if Smith hasn’t knocked him out yet. I wish I could see that. Some of it looks like it’s up right, then there’s the stuff that’s sideways like those hallways I passed before and the stuff that looks like it’s upside down. Stone, wood, marble and tile there’s absolutely everything and it’s confusing. It’s like something out of an M. C. Escher painting.’_

Again, Max stopped as he walked halfway down the floating marble staircase to observe the place. On his right was a dining table like area with light-wooded chairs and tables, and a white door. Down below him was an Oriental rug over a black and white chequered floor, there was a dark-red wing backed chair along with a stone block that was covered in rusty red and a white circle on top of its little space. He’d dismissed that place because it seemed too easy that the door behind the old black, elevator-type folding gate hid the next way.

_‘ Still, I might as well try.’_

He jumped down to land beside the block and willed it away from the space. The gate folded back, he started towards it, but before he’d even reached it, the gate had closed, again. Two more times he tried and failed, then just telekinetically slammed the stone into the chair, which flew away into the little gap between where he was and where he’d started out. The one thing he didn’t like about this was that there was **no** ground besides the floor, it was heavily green tinted, black space with absolutely tiny, white stars.

It startled him when a chair-shaped spot in the air glowed green, then the chair fell back onto the rug. Decided that he’d do it yet, again, but this time with focus and **still** just barely made it …only to end up in the kitchen area. “This place is stupid !”

Smith’s voice echoed from above, “This place doesn’t have a brain. What did you expect, Neo ?”

“Something that wasn’t a fucking maze, that’s what. Where the Hell do I go now ?”

Slowly, he shook his head as he walked past the chair and around the white-walled corner. This little bit of hallway was covered in old paintings, mostly French, of course as he wandered down to the white-painted, black-handled door. This time there was a flash of white light, instead of code, and this time he landed flat on his ass.

_ ‘ Did I just … ** fall out ** … of a door ? It looked like a regular door. Damned distorted dimensions, hmm, maybe it ‘ s the no-sleep, but that sounds hilarious. ’ _

Seconds later, Zephyr ran past him as she dropped a sword, “Deal with these for me ? Thanks, just dip it in fire, they hate fire.” The witch ran across the dark-brown floor, past one of the marble columns as he picked up the short sword and got up.

When he did that he noticed there was a candelabra on the ceiling hung from a gold chain. _‘ They ? I don’t like the sound of that they. What the fuck is that thing ?’_

There was some sort of ball shaped code in the air, when it landed it was a dark-brown ball and then it popped up into a **giant fucking ant !!** It was slightly taller, about a few inches, than him, with huge black eyes, two legs on the floor and two up right, it snapped it ’s pincers at him menacingly. 

_‘ Ah, shit.’_

He feinted left, before he threw himself into a roll on it’s right side. A second later, he jumped and slashed the sword at the candelabra’s chain; the sword connected but didn’t cut. Then he was grabbed out of the air and thrown into a burgundy wall, it smashed from the force. _‘ Oh, great there’s more of them. Well, at least, she said thank you.’_

Quickly, he crawled toward his dropped sword, rolling to the left as one of the, now, four giant ants tried to crush him. Swiped at and grabbed the sword, before he lunged up to stab it in the thing that looked like it’s ass, whatever it was. An angry chatter- **snap** as he kicked it up to collide with the chain. Finally, the chain snapped and the ant fell with it onto the flames. The ant screeched before it curled up into a ball and disappeared in a bunch of brown cinders. 

Slowly, he turned, wincing at the heat on his back, to face the three others. The ant on the right lunged at him and he ducked, it flew into the fire too. It looked like the other two were smarter because they’d hung back by the wall. Looked around for the sword and pulled it out of the fire. ‘ _Holy shit, it ’s **on fire** , this is so awesome !’_

Giddy and laughing like mad, he rushed the remaining ants, a few strikes had backed them into a corner and went crazy until both were cinders.

Cole’s voice, “Father, I think Dad just went a bit crazy.”

“Oh, you don’t know the half of it, Cole.”

“It’s just lack of sleep, plus look at it…it’s a fucking flaming sword.”

Smith dryly, “Well, I don’t know about fucking.”

Irritated for some reason, he brandished the sword at the ceiling, “You shut up, you’re just jealous cause I’m holding it instead of you.”

Cole’s laughter burst from the ceiling and then, “I didn’t need to know that Dad.”

“Well, too bad you do now and you’ll deal with it. Or-or’s the ants with you.”

_‘ God, I sound like I’m drunk or something. Got to love lack of sleep, I’m so going to die.’_

He wandered toward the edge of the platform and jumped onto the middle, floating rusty red/white circled stone. The stones bridged the gap between the black and white-tiled floor that led up to a broken marble wall and staircase, the staircase besides being anchored to the floor just floated in mid-air, and joined the platform above. When he approached it, the pieces flew back together so that he could use it.

So, he went up the right side, passed another armchair, walked across the red-mahogany bridge and up to the three doors. The middle one had a black-gate over it, the other two were just regular white doors. Instinct made him open the closest one, code and then he was falling onto the upper part of the wall he’d just defeated the ants in.

Wondering, he turned to look at the other side, up above him was a room. Intrigued, he jumped over to it and pulled himself up to see a bunch of floating black marble squares. Since there was nothing else there, he made his way back to the upper floor, he turned and stared at what he saw.

There was a whole gray stone fountain on it’s side flowing like it was up right, stairs with platforms to nowhere stood in front of it and there were a whole bunch of floating candelabra’s scattered around the fountain. Above the fountain was some rose-tinted windows with some darker red and pink patterns on it.

_‘What the Hell is this place ? Mff, there’s got to be some way out of here. Try the gate one this time. I need a sheath for this sword or it’s going to be annoying carrying it around.’_

As he turned back, he manipulated the code to make a belted, black leather sheath, then sheathed the sword and belted it on. It was a lot easier to move the second block, even though he nearly fell off the platform doing it. This gate was slower and he made it through on the first try then… ended up staring at a white wall. Jumped up onto the wall, it was…sideways or he was sideways, something like that. White sunlight shone through the sideways windows and he scratched his head in confusion.

There was a bit of panic at always getting lost and now feeling very disoriented wasn’t helping. He sat down on the floor, before putting his head in his hands, trying to calm down.

_‘It’s not that bad, it’s not that bad. Oh, no, it just looks like you’re going to fall off the face of **everything !** Hey, that giant window’s got diamond patterns in it and there’s some blue too, not just red and pink. What exactly was Frenchie going for when he made this ? It looks like some giant cat just threw everything up and he left it there. Why am I thinking about cat barf ? I should’ve have picked the left door.’_

When he looked around, he couldn’t see anyway back to where he’d come from. Though, he didn’t really want to do it, he’d just have to trust Frenchie to have programmed more than just chairs to go back in their place. Rolled off the edge for a second everything hung motionless, then he was falling and **then** he was crashing to roll to a stop back on the door platforms. His gaze wandered to the side and he noticed that the place he’d just been on was sideways now. _‘Huh, so I didn’t imagine it.’_

Finally, he entered the left door with a white flash, it took him to an area with a light-wooded floor, red carpet and couches. Then more ants appeared and he unsheathed the sword, which surprisingly flared back into life. These ones were apparently able to turn into embers to float/teleport and knock him around. The amazing thing, he could still attack them like that so besides getting thrown into one of the wall lamps and destroying a few of the couches it was fairly easy. Jumped up onto the wall, this floor was of darker wood and there was another set of stairs and a platform. Yet, he walked toward the huge block of floating stone as he sheathed the sword and looked over the edge, there was a white, red and green rug down the steps leading to a white-door.

This one was another white-light one and he felt like he was twisting around, before he landed crouched on a brown and beige platform with the rose-colored windows in front of him. They were actually a dome type of place with a gate in front of it, well, that explained the stone block he’d missed. More ants appeared as he ran down the staircase towards the dome.

Huffed in annoyance then flying-kicked the nearest giant ant into the fountain. Two of the ants’ dog piled him, he bucked and threw them off.

Zephyr’s voice called from inside the dome, “Hey, Max, I think I know the way out. Can you move that block while I deal with the ones in here ?”

Grunted as he was kicked in the side and then he answered, “Yeah, sure, but I’m kind of getting swamped here.”

Rolled onto his back, unsheathed the sword and slashed at the ant. It dodged, he growled and climbed to his feet, parrying it’s arm slashes and punches as he moved closer to the block. Zephyr let out another one of her wails and the ants chatter-snapped as they fell over, but it wasn’t nearly as painful for him being farther away now. Relieved, he moved the block a bit over and heard the gate move.

Zephyr responded, “I’ll see if I can open it from my side now.”

His relief was short lived as the sword suddenly shattered on the next impact with an ant. With nothing else to use to he threw the hilt at the ant and rushed past it to jump over the fountain. Zephyr had opened the gate from her side as it finally stayed open and she gestured briefly, “See ya, later, Max.”, before disappearing down the left.

Ducked under an uppercut and slid into the room, he got up and scrambled for the door. It was another white-light door and he fell into a giant white and black-tiled room, there were two handrails-less, white staircases on either side of an equally giant bonfire.

Even more giant ants, he cart wheeled to avoid the one that jumped at him. Slammed into a different one and took it’s legs out before throwing it into the bonfire. There were about twelve more, again, he found himself running, this time for the stairs and up to the platform. Three black marble floating stones, three doors and he jumped for the closest stone, only to be tackled by an ant and slammed hard into the floor. Just started shoving, kicking and punching them into the bonfire when he got up.

Finally, panting heavily he stood alone beside the fire, he shook his head and walked back up the stairs. This time he made it to the door easily and ended up in another room, eventually he managed to kill those ants too, before he jumped across some much bigger floating stone cubes, three of them to be exact, before he opened the door another code. A simple jump took him to another white-door and this one was mercifully white-light. This time he ended up in a long row of empty doorways, all the way at the end was another white-door.

_‘This seems way too easy, damn I hope this is the end of it.’_

He booked it for the last door, the hallway never seemed to end, until he finally reached the last door and when he opened it, he fell into the circular room.

_‘Okay, trial one - the maze won. Trial two - who the Hell knows, but, it can’t be much harder.’_

As he walked toward the red double doors they dissolved into white-light.


	26. Hel

Max/Neo as warily as being half-asleep let him as he walked into the light-gray room he looked around at the black edgings below the rows of huge, flat-screen gray TV’s and chains that gleamed in the red light. The entire hallway was lined with neon lighted crosses - one was a thick double-lined red and white neon cross like on the doors, else they were just a thin red cross or a thicker lined one. He slumped against the right wall to yawn; this wasn’t going to help at all.

After a second, he shook himself back awake and asked in what sounded like a coherent voice to him, “What’s up with this ? That was only the first trial, so it can’t be a party.”

Cole laughed and then responded, “Ah, Dad, you’re going want to try again, that sounded like gibberish.”

“Wha’z with th-mmm-this ?”

“You af to zurvive.” After that, there was what was probably supposed to be an evil laugh, but sounded much sillier than it should have, that was cut off.

Smith countered, “If you are going to do one, do it properly, you are such an embarrassment to a former villain. **This** is how you do an evil laugh…”

Through their little bit of a connection he felt the coldness/evil return, then Smith’s evil laugh echoed through him and the room. It was even deeper and darker than normal, cold, incredibly eerie and, of course, sexy. It was like he’d suddenly had chilled black silk slide across his bare skin, he was suddenly far more awake than before.

Only then, did he notice the many guns scattered across the floor, they were surrounded by a circle of glimmering, purple code just begging him to pick them up. _‘If I don’t they’ll just disappear any ways. I need a harness or something, but I don’t know if I’m awake enough for that.’_

He tried just pulling a memory of his harness from the code, surprisingly, it worked; half of it was shredded into uselessness, but it still somewhat worked. Annoyed, he threw it on the floor, “Sa pieces a crap fuck.”

A questioning, “Ahh, **Crab** fucking ? Are you seriously saying you would rather be with a crab made of manure than me, Sun ? That is very disappointing and very, very, **incredibly** disturbing.”

The only thing that came out was a half-growl/half-gibberish, “Rragh !”, as he turned and punched the wall. Eventually, he did the harness right and even a perfect memory of Neo’s/his Granddad’s old cassock, after he pulled it on, leaving it open, he holstered the guns around the Desert Eagle.

As he walked down the hallway toward the neon cross and turned the corner to see a set of black-marble, double doors, Smith asked, “Why did you start wearing that, Neo ? I was going to ask on our first date, but then I decided to wait and forgot.”

Still wary he stopped a few feet away from the doors and answered, “It was or rather it’s a copy of, my Granddad Anderson’s. He was a former priest who always said that if he could’ve stopped the bullets that killed his friends during, “The War.”, he would’ve done it. He couldn’t, so in a way, I wanted to do it for him.”

It must have, to some degree, been coherent because there was an, “Aww.”, from Cole and the Frenchie let loose a string of swears that were again cut off.

“Holy shit, Dad, Father just punched the asshole **through** the door. Why couldn’t you have done more stuff like that when I was little ?”

He and Smith both responded, “Cole Anderson, you would’ve punched Jason Kane through a thousand doors and killed him.”

“Jason was an asshole who tried to bully Becca into sleeping with him.”

They both exclaimed, “ **What ?!** ”

“Yeah and he said some, “Creepy albino dudes.”, were paying him for his efforts.”

Smith snarled at the Merovingian, “You disgusting, old fuck. How dare you do that to our daughter-in-law ! I should delete you for that.”

“Ah, ah, e-ef you do zat zhen Apocalypse vill nev-air be free.”

At those words, he’d had enough of standing around and as his vision flashed into code, instead of being just green and black, there were also bits of red code. Three vampires stood upside down on the ceiling their guns ready. _‘I don’t think I’ve remembered seeing red code before. I wonder what it means. How are their trench coats not hanging down around their heads ? It wouldn’t look nearly as threatening, since they‘d look really stupid and they wouldn‘t want that. Rule of cool or something ? Hmm, Niobe’s never done a ceiling-walk that I know of, but it **would** be cool.’_

Blinked the code away, when he started towards the doors blasted open in a cloud of dust. As he walked in the room was covered in gray columns with black plates around the bottom and top, the walls were still gray lit by more neon red from the floor and ceiling. The crosses were only scattered in the corners, now, the floor was some sort of gray and black tile.

The vampires opened fire with MP40’s and he rolled to the left side to the cover of a column. When they were finished shooting for a second, he backed up, ran up and around the column’s corner and leapt at the long black-haired vampire with the red-streak.

They collided as a few bullets and, of course, pain flashed through his side. When they slammed into the floor he punched the vampire in the face, grabbed said vampire while he flipped up right and threw him into a gray trench coated and blond mohawked vampire.

Meanwhile the brown-haired, black dustered vampire was still shooting at him. He stopped the bullets this time and rushed forward to grab the vampire’s arms, while he turned, ’fell’ and helped the vampire shoot his friends. The red-streaked vampire flashed blue and fell, while the blond took a few hits, but dodged the rest. Annoyed, he lunged and reverse flip-kicked the vampire into a pillar, as he stopped the air to float he pulled out a pair of pistols, focused and emptied them into the blond who flashed blue. When he landed he winced as the landing jarred his shoulder, before throwing the empty guns away.

_‘There probably won’t be any, but Hell, there were med-kits in Govt. lobby for some reason, why not in an even colder Hel ? I’m so glad that I wasn’t a Viking or that last death of mine wouldn’t have been pleasant. Hey, there’s one ! Argh, damn glitch just ate it. Well…fuck you, glitch, you’re stupid. Just another reason to get this over with, Apoc gets free, the Prime Program is whole again and everybody’s just peachy. Damn, I forgot how boring self-missions are. What’re Trin, Niobe and Cecil doing, I wonder ? Probably having more fun than I am or sleeping. Sleeping sounds nice, I want to **sleep**.’_

Cole’s voice broke into his thoughts, “Seep ? No, you can’t seep through the floors. God, Dad, you’re weird when you’re sleep deprived. Hmm, right, Father ?”

“I have heard much worse, like the time he was half-asleep and asked me if worms could eat him. Or, possibly it was the time he asked if **flowers** could eat him. Either way, he has asked and said many incomprehensible things when both sleep deprived and half-asleep.”

“Damn, Dad, you really **are** weird. Flowers trying to eat you, most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.”

The opposite doors, now that all the guys were dead, had burst open. _‘How the Hell does that work ? They couldn’t have opened before I got shot ? Damned freaking asshole. He’s probably doing it on purpose.’_

Slowly, he shook his head and walked through the doors, the first bit of hallway looked clear, but when he turned the corner two vampires were waiting.

A screamed, “Git he-im.”

It made him laugh when the vampires just stood there in confusion for a second. At least, until the one on the right got the double-barrelled shotgun out. Then he ran horizontally along the wall, jumping off to spin-kick the brown-haired vampire in the head. A second later, he’d pulled the shotgun away and put two shot’s into the other vampire, which surprisingly deleted it.

‘ _Huh, cool, good thing I have two. Wait, fuck, why did I bother stealing this one ? Damn it, I’m going need a hospital for my shoulder after this. I wonder if Doc Morris could do it ? All these injuries I’ve had over the years and nobody’s ever called the cops or anything. That should be a sign on it’s own of how fucking intimidating that damned blond asshole is. I mean, at least, I’m not an ass…or I hope not. I am such a dumb blond tonight.’_

The vampire he’d kicked hadn’t gotten up, still he put two in it as a precaution. Before he started moving, he shifted the shotgun to his left hand and walked around the corner as the doors, yet again, dramatically burst open.

He quipped, “Enough with the dramatics, just get off already, you stupid old fart. **I** never had those problems and I wasn‘t even close to your age when I died.”

Two chuckles and much cursing from the Merovingian followed his words as he walked into the next room, which was very different than the first. This one was black walled, with a cage in the center of the room with a full-size, creepy, black and white automaton doll in it. Around the room were black-marble tables, caldrons over fires and gray-slate couches and a table were scattered around the room; also, wire mesh covered the walls.

Five vampires stood in front of the cage, one of them asked, “Should we put you to bed…permanently ?”

That got a snort from him and he finally emptied the shotgun, before throwing it in one of the vampire’s faces. _‘Yeesh, they all look the same. Sure, Smith said their from a different version of the Matrix but still, that’s no excuse.’_

Then a picture showed up in his mind of one of the caldrons exploding. ‘ _Heh, thank you, Ice-eyes.’_ With that he flipped past the vampires and ran to stand behind the caldron near the far right corner. While he’d been doing that he’d surreptitiously pulled out another pair of pistols and now one of the vampires started circling, they ended up circling each other a bit.

“Keel he-im.”

“Shut up.”

For a second he stopped, “What ? But, I didn’t say anything.”

“Not you, love, I was telling the **imbecile** to shut up. Look Neo, I love staring at you, but just strafing is getting repetitive. Will you explode the vampire already ?”

“Bye-bye.”

The vampire confusedly replied, “Uh, bye ?”

At that he cart wheeled away and shot the caldron, it exploded with a loud **bang**. Helpfully, the explosion also caught three of the others, then he got dog piled by the last two vampires, both landing heavily on his wounded shoulder.

Then the Merovingian screamed, "‘Ow did she git in ‘ere ? Git ‘er you foolz !”

He looked up to see Niobe jump down from the ceiling, flipping in mid-air to land on the floor and grab the top guy to throw him away into the far left caldron this time with a loud **boom** !

“Neo don’t just lay there, move your scrawny ass.”

He rolled over briefly squashing the vampire, as he exclaimed, “My ass is **not** scrawny ! Smith tell Niobe my ass isn‘t scrawny !”, he sprang up and kicked the gray-dustered vampire in the side.

As the vampire slid away Niobe pulled a pair of AK’s out of her coat and deleted the vampire.

Smith replied, “It’s not scrawny, but it is small and yes that is a good thing, before you ask. I like you small, ah, mostly small. I am going to get my ass kicked if I don‘t shut up, aren’t I ?”

Niobe muttered, “Smith, you’re a suck-up and I don’t mean just literally.”

There was an, “Eww, Auntie Niobe ! I didn’t need to know that.”, from Cole.

Niobe shook her head, “Cole Anderson you are a grown man, deal with it.”

That made him chuckle and he hissed as his shoulder throbbed while he asked, “Niobe, do you have a med-kit on you ? Got myself shot in the last room.”

His old friend’s last sentences were sarcastic, “You forgot to dodge the bullets ? Shame on you, Neo. What will Morpheus think ?”

“Matt doesn’t care, now c’mon Niobe, do you have a kit or not ? I’m in pain.”

Niobe pulled the med-kit out of her coat and, after he shrugged out of the cassock, helped him out of the harness and his shirt. There were a few, “Mm’s.”, from above then a, “Vill you ztop punching moi ? !”

Smith's exclamation of, “Never !”, was itself followed by another evil laugh.

Niobe sighed and said, “Neo do you remember the first time I met Cole ?”

“Oh yeah, ouch, that was cute. We were standing in the hallway, Cole was so tiny back then and even though I knew you wouldn’t hurt him, it still worried me that you might by accident. Cole was wearing a fancy, little, suit because he wanted to impress you so badly.

I remember the first thing Cole said as he ran up to you, “ **Hi, I’m Cole**.”

He was so much more confident than when Smith and I first met him. Then you crouched down and replied, “How’re you young Mr. Anderson ?”

Smith and I both laughed as he retorted, “My name is Cole, Auntie Niobe, C-O-L-E ! Can I try on your jacket ? It looks cool, Dad said cool is good, but he calls Father hot. Does that mean Dad doesn‘t like Father, Auntie ?”

You laughed and said, “You’re a bit young, but yes, he does like him. It might be a bit big, but I suppose you can try it, little guy.”

You took it off and gave it to him, it was so huge when he turned around it completely swamped him. Then when he tried to run up to me, he was getting hit in the face by the sleeves and tripping over the hem. Ah, that was hilarious. Hmm, anyways Niobe, what’re you doing here ?”

Niobe shifted an uncomfortable look passing over her face, “Neo…your Mom ended up in the hospital after the glitch.”

“ **What ?!** Why ? What happened ? It was that fuck wasn‘t it ? I‘ll kill him.”

“It was, but, you shouldn’t worry as much as your going to, Vlad’s got one or two guys around the hospital and I’m going back there now.”

“No, Niobe, you didn’t say what happened to her. What happened to my Mom ? What did that fuck do to her ?”

“He, from what I understood anyway, he…beat her into a coma. Apparently, he found your room somehow and a woman, ah, I think her name was Marian found your Mom just inside your room some time later.”

He was so angry that he didn't know what to say and, again, all that came out was, “Rargh, rargh.” and gibberish along with plenty of angry motions.

_‘I’ll throw him in one Hel and then when they get sick of him there, I’ll throw him in the **other** Hell.’_


	27. Witch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sogni sanguinari is Italian for ‘Bloody dreams’. While Max vedendo Persephone, di nuovo, questa dovrebbe essere una sera divertente. Mi chiedo se egli ha ricordato l'italiano che lei l'ha insegnato?, is Italian for ‘Max meeting Persephone, again, this should be a fun evening. I wonder if he’s remembered the Italian she taught him ? 
> 
> Meanwhile Schnee is German for ‘Snow’.

_‘I don’t like how much Max got thrown around last night by the Prime Vampire and the Witch Queen. Especially when the Witch Queen was mind-controlling Zephyr into wailing at and attacking him. At least, Zephyr made up for it by helping take her down. It really was quite beautiful watching the starry void appearing as Zephyr in turn knocked down the walls along with the Witch Queen so that Max could attack her without making him dizzy or anxious. At least, the albinos attack was good for something considering Max and the others are out of school for the next few days until the police are done gathering the final bits of evidence.’_

Smith’s gaze drifted over to the hospital cafeteria’s clerk, a black-haired woman in a tight, dark-purple blouse. Even if she had not worn it, he would have equated her with the Witch Queen, or, more amusingly, the Bitch Queen, as Zephyr had called the black lip-sticked A.I. yesterday, since she was yelling at the girl beside him. Said girl was very waif-like, possibly sixteen or seventeen, with almost sickly pale-skin and long, white-blond hair in a ripped, red jacket that wouldn’t last the rest of fall, much less the winter.

Years of being around empathetic humans made him think, _‘Poor girl, whatever happened to her ? Regardless she does not deserve to be yelled at.’_

The woman had just started to call the girl a, “Stupid little homeless hussy.” All the while said girl her eyes red-rimmed glared at the cashier.

When she went to leave the line, he put a hand on her shoulder. He moved slightly to loom a good foot over said cashier. Like most humans the woman instinctively cringed away from him and the by this time, severely reduced, inhumanness that was always visible in his eyes. “I will pay for the girl’s things as she doesn’t deserve to be yelled at by people like you. You, Miss., are the very personification of everything I hate about this race - loud, arrogant and incredibly, incredibly idiotic to an almost unfathomable degree. Do you even know a single thing about this girl you just **harassed**?”

Another similarity to the Witch Queen as gray-eyes widened, but this human didn’t have a retort and just stared at him like a mudskipper. _‘Well, expect for the fact that a mudskipper is much smarter than her, it’s an insult to mudskipper intellect to compare the two.’_

“Well, since you have suddenly lost the ability to speak, then you can get me a medium French Vanilla cappuccino.” More staring until he snapped in his most authoritative tone, “Now, if you do not mind. There are others here as well or did you forget them ?”

Finally the woman started doing her job, again, mean while the girl stared up at him speechless before she signed, “Thank you, sir.”

In response he nodded, behind them the line was anything but quiet and filled with murmurs of, “Wow.”, “That was nice of him.” and a few along the lines of, “If you ask me he sounds ex-military by that tone. Never heard it anywhere else unless he’s a cop or something. By his look, he could be both.”

After he paid, he took Max’s coffee as the girl took her food and as they left the line, she said in a nearly inaudible voice with a faint French accent, “My name’s Uri, Uri Malfoy. I’m partially deaf and what hearing I have is bad, so signing is easier most times. Who‘re you ?”

They started walking down the stairs and he warily eyed the hair-line crack in the white-plaster ceiling before looking down at her, “My name is Smith. May I ask, Miss. Malfoy, how exactly you ended up here ?”

Miss. Malfoy nodded, though she looked slightly embarrassed, “I’m a hermaphrodite and my dad was perfectly fine with it, but my mom wasn’t. Whenever my dad wasn’t around she’d threaten to put me in the street. A few months ago at my dad’s work, the restaurant _Sogni sanguinari_ , you’ve probably heard of it - you know, the place were most of the staff can walk on the ceiling.”

“Yes, Max and I are good friends with the owners Persephone and N-Helen. Though we don’t go there often now, your father was the one who was killed wasn’t he ?”

_‘So, this is the young Malfoy that they always mentioned to Cole. The one whose own mother hated her. I will never be able to understand how people like Mr. Jameson and Mrs. Malfoy can exist and do these horrid things to their children. Neo and I never would have dreamed of doing them and I doubt that Mr. Malfoy suspected it would ever happen to his little girl.’_

Miss. Malfoy nodded, again, “He was and a few days after it happened missus Persephone came to our house to apologize. I wanted to ask if I could leave with her, but she’s so pretty and kind of scary…so, I didn’t. When I got outside, she’d already disappeared and mom said she wouldn’t let me back inside and I’ve been a wanderer ever since. I got a job to save up some money so that I could get some hearing aids, but my mom found out and started lying to them. Most of the staff and the manager were really nice, they didn‘t listen to her. Still, she kept calling me at work or coming in and I had to quit because she always made me mess up whatever I was doing.”

“You should go talk to Persephone and Helen, I’m sure they wouldn’t mind letting you stay with them and they would likely give you a job of some sort as well.”

Yet again, Miss. Malfoy nodded, bid him a good day and left as he went down to Mrs. Jameson’s room on the second floor. Mainly the only things that had happened here were things falling over and/or being unplugged, apparently the Matrix **still** continued to be choosy when it glitched on a wide scale. He entered the, yet again, white room to the sounds of soft beeping and pig-like snoring. Max was slumped over in a chair beside his mother’s bed, like the one time that Cole had literally caught a virus and he’d nearly gotten it himself.

_‘If I had it just would have worsened my already, when compared to Cole’s, weakened code considering that I have been here for over six hundred years now. It doesn’t happen often, but even we A.I. do get ‘sick’ . It also boosted Cole’s ‘humanness’ in the minds of Rebecca and the others, so it was good for something.’_

Slowly, he walked over to wave the coffee under Max’s nose until the dark-brown eyes fluttered open. A murmur, “Aww, just for me ?”

“Hmm, well, I was thinking of splitting of it, but then I figured you deserved it more. So, yes, just for you…on one condition.”

“Don’t tell me it’s dancing around on the roof naked. You‘re not actually going to make me do that are you ?”

“Oo, that is a nice idea, very unfortunately though, it happens to be illegal. What my actual condition is, is simple - like Niobe said yesterday don‘t let it worry you. You already passed out last night after A-Grace and the Key Maker were freed and we parted ways with Zephyr.”

**Flashback**

It made him wonder why the long black-haired woman and the Key Maker, an old ‘Chinese’ A.I. who could get into any door, anywhere, were staring in concern beside him.

Grace known formerly as Apoc muttered to Max, “Ah, N-Max, you don’t look so good, man.”

He had started turning when Max suddenly dropped unconscious onto the grass outside of the chateau’s gates. Cole crouched down and pulled Max up as the Key Maker asked, “What happened to him ?”

“He had to fight both the Prime Vampire and the Witch Queen after what is likely one of the most tiring days he’s had in this life.”

**Flashback**

Anxious, he watched Max already bleeding from a claw-fingered blow to the cheek jump from off the black stair platform onto the black marble square hanging from the ceiling with the grenade launcher on it. Except that his love was so worried and not concentrating that he only managed to grab the edge of the platform. The incredibly pale, black crimp-haired vampire teleported across from Max to kick him in throat, then teleported beside the blond to grab and throw Max off.

His sun slammed hard into the tile floor and he resisted the urge to go and help as he saw the **dent** that Max had just made in said floor. It made him sigh in relief as the pale human **finally** un-holstered the Desert Eagle and as the vampire jumped off Max shot it in the head.

**End Flashback**

The Key Maker nodded, “That is quite something to go through, he needs to be healed before the rest of the wounds show up. You do know how to heal damage don‘t you, Smith ?”

“Ah, slightly yes, but I have never been particularly good at it; I am far more proficient at causing it.”

“The Source should help you if you could tap into it.”

That made him hiss, “No.”

Apoc wondered, “Why ? What’re you so worried about ?”

_‘I don’t want to be tempted, I don’t want to…’_

“I could lose control, I could…I could try to take him over. I will not risk accidentally hurting or killing him. Not when I said that I would never hurt him again.”

Beside him Cole shook his head, “ **Father !** Grace and I don’t know how to do that and you can’t ask the Key Maker to do it. We just got him back, you’re not seriously going to risk losing him, again, this soon are you ?”

_‘My stupid little brat once again has a point, brat.’_

Gently, he took Max from Cole and put him back down on the grass, while he muttered, “You are a little bastard.”

“You would know, Father.”

Grace/Apoc laughed, “Oo, Smith you just got burned.”

He ignored her and put a hand on Max’s chest he concentrated and let it sink in as he blinked his vision into code. Seconds later, his hand had sunk through the damaged layers of code and an unconscious thrill as he touched the Source, touched…power.

_‘I could get rid of that damned French bastard, I could tear the Goddamned chateau to the ground; for all the times that he and his little albino twins got away from me ! His stupid comments about Max and myself. No, shut up, shut up. I am not doing any of that. I need to help him, not go cold and dark, I won‘t let it win.’_

It would have truly been impossible for him to miss the ‘weight’ of all the eyes that were resting on him. “I told you I didn’t want to do it that is why.”

Slowly, he worked with the Source to heal Max and just when he finished pulling his hand away, Max opened his eyes.

**End Flashback**

A faint smile, “I’ll…try.”, followed by a peck on the lips as Max took the cup from him.

Seconds later, there was a slightly familiar voice, but he couldn‘t place it, even as she said, “I’m glad you’re back Neo, I missed you.”

Max twisted around in the chair for a second, before the blond man got up with an exclamation of, “Sati ! Oh, wow, you got…big, err, I mean you’ve ‘grown up’ since I saw you last time.”

He looked up to see that the formerly little brown-skinned ‘Indian’ A.I. had gotten herself upgraded to a far more grown-up teenage form. Sati wore a cream blouse with black-pants, while her long black-hair was loose around her shoulders, whereas when she was little it was almost always in pigtails.

Max hugged the young woman, “You look exactly like Kamala, err, your mom, Sati.”

Sati returned Max’s hug and then smiled over Max’s shoulder at him, “I know, that was my plan. It’s nice to see you too, Smith. How’s my cousin Cole doing ?”

Sati pulled away from Max, then walked over and shook his hand. “He’s doing good, especially since he met the young Miss. Dane. I’m glad to see you finally grown up. Now, you truly are the young woman I knew you would be.”

“Ah, Neo I think you…broke…Smith. He’s being **too** nice **and** he’s giving me compliments.”

Max waved a hand, “Oh, how ever do I break it to you. Sati…I’m sorry, I’m so very sorry, but, he’s been broken for years. I mean, Smith just got me **coffee** , he hasn’t gotten me coffee in years, extenuating circumstances not withstanding. Besides, trying to fix him just makes him worse, play along and it’ll make him feel better.”

“Thank you for that Max, tell me did you get extended warranty or just standard on me ?”

Laughter filled the room as the blond replied with an, of course, serious, “Well, I would’ve gone with standard, but they didn’t have that; so, I had to go with the…extended version. Do you think it’s still good or does it need a renewal ?”

After they all had calmed down, in the interim of which Max almost spilled his drink, Max asked, “What’re you doing here in the hospital, Sati ? Nothing happened to Seraph or the Oracle did it ?”

“Oh, we’re all fine, all it did was shake the building. I just wanted to tell you that I could maybe, and it’s quite a bit of a maybe, encourage your mom to wake up. Though, if it works it could just be a regular wake up, or a rather…surreal wake up. Oh, also that I left some cookies with Cole for you guys when you get home.”

Max took a sip from his drink before he answered, “That’s good, better than Cecil and I getting trapped in our hospital room. I don’t care what kind of wake up it’d be if it works, I just hope it will. Knowing you, Sati, it’ll work. Hmm, what kind of cookies ?”

Sati walked over to stand beside Mrs. Jameson and took the pale hand that was covered in Iv’s. The younger A.I. was silent for a moment before she answered Max, “Some oatmeal-chocolate chip, along with a few double-chocolate and triples. Smith you need to show me how you made those zucchini/carrot cookies. Martine was always bugging me to get the recipe from you and this is the first time I’ve seen you in a while.”

For a second, he made a show of debating and then said, “I suppose I could show you as a ‘birthday’ present.”

A second of childishness from Sati as she clapped her hands and bounced on her heels. “Yay, thank you ! Ooh, you two should go to the restaurant tonight. You guys need something fun to take your minds off being **so** serious all the time.”

“Restaurant ? What sort of restaurant ?”

He replied, “Niobe and Persephone’s, Sogni sanguinari or Bloody dreams, you haven’t remembered that yet ?”

“Nope, memories are out of order literally and figuratively. Let me guess vampire restaurant ?”

“Yes, that was and still is part of the gimmick - people trying to figure out how the servers can walk on the ceiling.”

“Oh, yeah it’s sort of fuzzy, but I can remember a bit of it.”

When Max and himself both replied, “We can do that,” They waited a few seconds then, again at the same time, “...Schnee.”, and ended up laughing.

Another giggle from Sati, “You guys are cute when you do that.”

**Flashback**

A cheery voice whispered, “Aww, it’s so cute when they do that.”

He startled out of his doze and lifting his head slowly, so that Neo wouldn’t wake, he opened his eyes to look around the living room, a middle-aged woman with black-streaked, dark-blond hair stood in the doorway.

When she saw him looking the woman became sheepish, “Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you up. Is he okay do you think ?”

Then he felt Neo get up and looked to see the white-haired man walk up to the picture window. Neo’s excited, “Look, look snow. Ad, it’s snowing.”, made him chuckle.

“I know love.”

_‘He remembered me, that‘s good. He’s so cute when he gets excited about snow.’_

**End Flashback**

“We know, would you stop that ? Why do I love you again ?”

Himself, “You’re funny and you don’t care that I used to be an ass.”

Max, “You’re smart ’n really good at massages.”

“Hmm, good enough for me.”

Sati chuckled and said, “I’ll tell them you two are going to be there.”, as she breezed out the door.

_‘Max vedendo Persephone, di nuovo, questa dovrebbe essere una sera divertente. Mi chiedo se egli ha ricordato l'italiano che lei l'ha insegnato?’_

They looked after Sati for a moment before, for a second, Mrs. Jameson’s heart rate sped up. Max whispered as he turned back, “Come on, Mom, wake up.”


	28. Fortunato (Luck)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ‘Come i miei signori preferiti sono questa sera ?’, is Italian for ‘How are my favourite gentlemen this evening ?’
> 
> ‘Bene, salvo il fatto che ho rotto Smith, siamo bene, Persephone. Come stanno voi e Helen ?’, is Italian for ‘Well, besides the fact that I broke Smith, we’re fine, Persephone. How’re you and Helen ?’
> 
> ‘Infine lo avete rotto ? Che cosa pisciava egli sul pavimento o qualcos'altro ?’ - ‘You finally broke him ? What was he pissing on the floor or something else ?’
> 
> ‘Quanto fortunato per noi, destra, occhi di ghiaccio ?’ - ’How lucky for us, right, ice eyes ?’

“Eleven, eleven pm. Not eleven thirty, even if it‘s only eleven o’ one, you are grounded. Do you hear me ?”

As he and Max walked down the driveway, Smith chuckled and responded as he put an arm around Max's waist, “Yes, Father.”

Max smothered his laughter into the long-sleeve of his black dress-shirt, before saying, “Dude, he’s way too strict on you.”

“I know he is, but, at least he cares.”

At that, they all shook their heads at the sheer absurdity of the joke and they waved at Cole as they turned onto the sidewalk. Roughly fifteen minutes later, they were approaching the two-storey redbrick building with white, curling fluted arches over the single picture window and the two smaller upper windows. The Sogni Sanguinari sign was in cursive writing, the colors silver on black.

When he looked through the picture window, he saw that nothing had changed since the last time he’d been in it. The ceiling was still a night-time scene, at the center of which was a Blood Moon surrounded by breaking clouds, the walls at the top were silvered fading downward into black. Some of the wait staff in a silver/black uniform, with either a blood-red duster or trench coat over top, walked along the ceiling. The long black-haired and very pale-skinned Vlad ‘let go’ of the ceiling to land beside one of the mahogany tables, all of which were covered with a silver tablecloth.

_‘I wonder where Niobe is ? She must be up in the office or on an errand, unless she's still with Mrs. Jameson.’_

When the vampire sensed his gaze the Sogni’s head waiter, and head of security, looked up before he nodded toward the door with a faint smile; said smile showed fangs before they retracted. It reminded him of when he’d found Vlad with Niobe.

**Flashback**

It had taken him a long while to convince the Logo’s Operator, Sparks, to tell him where Niobe was. _‘I know it is only reasonable considering my previous identity, still Niobe could have died in that short amount of time.’_

He un-holstered his gun as there was a faint sound from the alley, “Niobe ? Are you all right ?”

As he walked into the litter strewn alley, a body had just started fading and dissolving into the code. Someone with shoulder-length black-hair looked up from where they were crouched over Niobe’s prone body - a vampire by the snake-like fangs and the way the eyes briefly shone green in the moonlight. Fresh blood gleamed where it had spilled across the alley floor.

The vampire‘s voice was quiet, but deep, “She will be, Cujo hit a vein in her neck and she still managed to beat him. Before she passed out, I asked her if she would rather die or become a vampire. Niobe chose the latter and I‘ve given her my blood to start the conversion program.”

Holstered the gun as he walked up to the vampire and rebel/future vampire, “Why did you not help her before ? Cujo was a werewolf was he not ?”

“Yes, he was. As for the reason I didn’t help her I was supposed to meet her to deliver a packet of papers so that it would be decided if Zion wanted to ally with the Mistress. Ah, that is Persephone, the Merovingian’s ex-wife. Anyway, I was waylaid by some of Cujo‘s werewolves, obviously the French-man doesn‘t want it to happen.”

“Well, all the more reason to let it. I will give it to Neo, so that eventually it will reach Zion’s council. When you see her tell Persephone that I am glad she finally acted on common sense.”

“I will, hmm, it just surprises me that you’re actually dating Neo.”

Persephone’s voice, husky and faintly accented, “Enough Vlad, let Smith get back to his dear love; we need to get Niobe somewhere comfortable before the conversion finishes and she wakes up.”

He looked briefly at the pale-skinned and black-haired woman, the older A.I. just smiled slightly,

“Go on, shoo.”, and waved him away.

**End Flashback**

Max nudged him out of the memory and toward the door as he said, “C’mon, we’ve got to get in line before more people come.”

They got inside and waited by the hostess/cashier area; they watched as Persephone in a tight, dark-red dress that was covered with a black and silver shawl, showed an elderly couple to the center table. When the pale-skinned woman walked up to them she called, “Come i miei signori preferiti sono questa sera ?”

Max smiled and replied, “Bene, salvo il fatto che ho rotto Smith, siamo bene, Persephone. Come stanno voi e Helen ?”

“Infine lo avete rotto ? Che cosa pisciava egli sul pavimento o qualcos'altro ?”

It made him roll his eyes as he straightened his cufflink and joked, “I have done neither in quite a while thank you, Persephone.”

Persephone’s lips twitched, “Of course, you haven’t, Adrian.”, and then she led them to the table beside the elderly couple’s table.

A few minutes later, Miss. Malfoy in a uniform and red-duster with her hair in an even longer ponytail came up the aisle between the tables. The blond girl smiled briefly at him as she walked up to the physically older couple’s table.

_‘I knew they would give her a job. I wonder if she’s staying with them as well ?’_

Max wondered, “Who is she, Ad ?”

“Oh, I forgot to tell you about her. That Max is Miss. Malfoy, I met her in the cafeteria line this morning after the cashier was being rude and insulting her for something she had no control over.”

Max’s face was marred by a frown, “That’s horrible, I hope you told her that.”

“Trust me, I did and funnily enough, no one contradicted me on it.”

After Miss. Malfoy finished with the other couple, she moved over to their table. Miss. Malfoy’s light-brown eyes looked over them as he introduced Max, before the new waitress took their drink order, leaving menus behind. It was only because Max needed a refresher course that they kept the menus.

While the, compared to Miss. Malfoy, slightly darker blond was looking through said menu one of the ladies beside them asked, “Mr. Smith, wasn’t it ?”

He looked over at the tan-skinned and hazel-eyed woman, “Yes, ma’am, can I help you with something ?”

The woman raised her eyebrows before looking at her partner, “Can you believe it, Ethel ? There are some people with manners yet. Ah, anyway, I’m Mary, I was wondering did you know Miss. Malfoy’s father ?”

“No, I did not, but my son Cole knew him. Apparently, he was a very hard worker.”

“Oh, he was, Miss. Malfoy has quite the shoes to fill, but she’s off to a good start don’t you think ?”

“Yes, she seems very capable and quite at ease.”

His gaze darted to Vlad as the vampire approached their tables, Vlad wore a red trench coat with black-sleeves and a silver-hem that denoted his higher position. “I know you haven’t received anything yet, but I wanted to find out how she’s doing at the tables so far.”

It amounted roughly to, “She’s doing incredibly well for her first day on the job. You can hardly tell she‘s partially deaf.”

At the far table beside Mary and Ethel’s a man piped up, “Why’re you letting her work ? She’ll mess everybody up and slow you down, she shouldn’t even have a job.”

The brown-haired woman beside the man hissed, “Shut up, she’s not slowing them down and it doesn’t look like she’s going to at all.”

“She’ll fuck it up just you watch.”

The woman stood up to leave, “God, you’re an asshole. I don’t even know why Rose set me up with you.”

When she went to walk away, her date grabbed her forearm hard enough for her to yelp, “Let go of me !”

“No ! You don’t walk away from me like that you stupid bitch.”

People who had been eating stopped to look at the commotion, as he thought, _‘He really should not have done that.’_

Vlad snarled and stalked up to the man in full fury, “Let her go. Right. Now.”

“Oh yeah ? Make me.”

Vlad grabbed the man’s wrist and yanked his hand off the woman’s arm before turning and slamming the man face first into the floor. Said angry vampire then growled, “If I ever hear of you doing something like that again, I. Will. Kill. You. Now get the Hell out of this restauraunt.”

Vlad released the man before two other vampires, one blond and the other black-haired, dragged and threw the man outside. Miss. Malfoy spoke up from between the tables startling even himself,

“That started because of me ?”

He looked over at the girl to see her holding the tray of drinks and looking dizzy, Max took it from her and put it on the table so she wouldn’t drop it. Ethel pulled Miss. Malfoy to sit down in a chair beside her.

Persephone spoke up from where she now stood beside Vlad, “No, Uri, it wasn’t your fault, you’re doing a fine job. Now, Ms. Keller is there anything my staff or I can do for you to make up for how much of a bigoted prick your date was being ?”

Ms. Keller shook her head and walked over to Miss. Malfoy,

“It really wasn’t your fault, sweetie. My friend Rose mentioned he was a bit bigoted, but I didn’t think he was that opinionated about it. You just forget about that asshole and keep doing a good job.”

Miss. Malfoy looked over at himself and Max, both of them nodded in agreement, as they took their drinks, then passed Ethel and Mary their own drinks. After that the rest of the evening went smoothly, at the end of the night between Max and his along with the others table Miss. Malfoy had forty dollars worth of tips for her service.

Some time later, when they entered the house Cole, who stood by the mahogany staircase, muttered, “Eleven o’ two, both of you are grounded.”

Max mock-whined looking at the light-wooded floor, as Hai barked, “B-but, I want a cookie.”

Cole folded his arms over his chest with his best combination father/teacher glare, “No, you can have one tomorrow.”

“I want one **now**.”

He interjected with, “You can be my cookie.”

The blond gave him a confused look, before bursting out laughing, “Did you really just say that ?”

“Yes, you’re sweet and too much of you is bad for me, besides cookies need love like everything does.”

While Cole was puzzled, they were laughing so hard they had to lean against the closet to stay upright.

Max gasped, “I…will never…be able… to look at Sati straight again.”

“Technically you never could.”

“Oh shut up already, you’re killing me. Wait, everything‘s going dark, I-I think I‘m dying for the fourth time.”

As the blond mock-swooned he caught his sunny life, “Oh no, whatever shall I do ? I know I shall take you to our room and start resuscitation.”

Cole gagged, “I’m leaving before I hear anymore, c’mon on Hai.”, as he walked past them and opened the door; Hai gave a growling-bark as he followed Cole outside.

The door thudded closed, he grinned, “Well, it seems we have the house to ourselves.”

Max opened his eyes, murmuring, “Indeed we do.

Quanto fortunato per noi, destra, occhi di ghiaccio ?”

As he replied, "Ja.", the pale-pink lips twitched into a sultry smile.


	29. Martine

Smith moaned as he clung to the moonlit, slick, pale body above him while the aftershocks dissipated. Dark-brown eyes fluttered shut as Max shuddered and came. He leaned up to kiss the now reddened lips as they separated and then murmured, “Pretty boy.”

Max rolled his eyes exasperated as the man lay down beside him, “Still not pretty or beautiful.”

It made him huff, again, “Yes you are, neither of us is going to give it up.”, as he pulled the thicker silver blanket over top of them; he stroked one of the faint scars before he slid his arm around the slightly smaller man’s waist. Sure, he had more muscle than Max, but compared to some men he was still on the slimmer side. _‘One thing that is good about it, people underestimate both of us.’_

Before he fell asleep, he felt Max press a kiss against the side of his neck with a soft sigh. In the morning, they got dressed and had breakfast as Cole re-appeared with Hai, they talked and when Cole mentioned that he’d gone to visit Martine, that made him look at Max before they both silently agreed to go see if Martine was home.

Half an hour later, he stood beside Max as his life knocked on the door to Martine’s apartment. A few seconds later, the blind A.I. opened the door, “Well, it’s nice to ‘see’ you two again. Smith sure ain’t the same without you Neo.”

**Flashback**

Even with the odd episode at the cemetery, positivity was hard to come by. Cole had taken Hai out for a walk and since he wasn’t expecting company, it startled him when there was a knock on the door. Slowly, he got up before he walked out of the living room and stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the drawing Lucy had done of him and Neo years ago. _‘We really were happy back then weren’t we ? After the first, I love you and then we adopted Cole. It just kept getting better for the most part for us, besides those few fights.’_

Another knock on the door that shook him out of the daze, feeling detached he walked to the door and opened it. For an unbelievable second Seraph looked like Neo’s younger self until the mirage faded. Then he noticed that Martine had also accompanied Seraph.

“Hello, Martine.” Even for him it sounded incredibly flat and monotone.

Martine rubbed at the heavy shades that covered his eyes, “Might I talk to you for a bit, Smith ?”

He moved to the side as he said, “I suppose the kitchen is on the right before the staircase.”, and Martine used his cane to make his way safely into the kitchen. Seraph gave him another brief sympathetic look like at Neo’s funeral then bowed, turned and walked away.

Slowly, after closing the door, he made his way into the kitchen. _‘He shouldn’t be sitting there ! That’s Neo’s spot. It’s not right, it’s too soon.’_

“Do you want to listen before you get angrier at me ?”

Annoyed, he sat down in his spot and folded his arms on the table, “Go on.”

The older A.I. folded up his cane, then sighed, “You know you’re not the only one of us to fall in love in with a human.”

“Of course, I know I’m not, Martine. Excluding this one there have been five versions of the Matrix.”

In all the years he’d known Martine, he’d never seen the A.I. without his glasses and when the man removed them they were just a shade lighter than Neo’s had been.

Martine glared at him, “Don’t you take that know-it-all tone with me, young man ! I was around at the start of the Paradise Matrix, when you and the other Agents only showed up midway through after Seraph and the others failed. Now, again, **listen** to me, Smith. Every one of us thinks our love is the best human ever to walk the face of any Matrix and they can’t die. One thing we always forget, is that we’ve been around longer than them and we don’t notice the time passing as easily as they do and then just like that,” Martine snapped his fingers, “they’re gone.”

That made him shift uncomfortably, because, of course, he’d thought that too. Of course, he’d thought that since Neo was the One, it should have been impossible for him to die.

Martine continued, “My Annabelle I’m told she was one of the finest looking women people’d ever seen, even when she was older. She was one of the kindest human souls I ever met beside’s Neo. As he probably told you, Annabelle told me so many times to leave her. When we’d been together for twenty years and she had a heart attack and died I was suddenly lost. Then I…I hated myself, because I told myself that if I’d been human instead of A.I. that I wouldn’t have had to go through all this pain. That if I’d have been just like her it would’ve been easier because I could’ve forgotten. Well, let me tell you how damned lucky you are to have your son Cole and your pictures, because I don’t have anything to remember Annabelle with.”

_‘I never thought about Martine possibly understanding this. He had someone ripped away from him too. Poor Martine and he’s dealt with this even longer than I have.’_

**End Flashback**

He shook himself as Martine gestured them inside the dark-orange/red living room as Max asked, “How’d you know it was me, Martine ?”

“You’ve still got more of the Source than normal people or A.I. ever will. Everybody’s a bit different, but most are reasonably similar to each other. That’s how I separated normal people, rebels ‘n A.I. from the Agents before Seraph came back and I decided to retire again. Sit down, coffee ?”

They moved to sit on the slightly cracked, green leather couch beside the far wall, “Yes, please. Do you remember Max the first time we were here and you tried getting the drinks yourself ?”

Martine disappeared into the tiny kitchen and Max replied, “Hmpf, Martine told me to, “Sit down, you’re my guest and you aren’t doing anything, unless it’s something I don’t know how to do myself.” and then **you** decided to slap my ass.”

“So, I did, still it got you to sit didn’t it ?”

“Yeah and it **also** got my ass to hurt for an hour. The last time my ass hurt that bad was when the bastard decided to slap me with a 2x4 last month.”

“I’m sorry.”

Max curled up beside him with a sighed, “I know, it wasn’t your fault.”

Martine re-entered the living room and put three coffee cups on the birch table. The darker man stroked his short, white beard as the oldest man asked, “Now, what’d you do to get hit with that ? Crash your daddy’s favourite car or something ?”

“I wish, then he’d have had a real reason for once. My so-called dad’s an abusive asshole not only to me but he also put my mom into a coma Thursday night/Friday morning. You wanna know what the kicker is, Martine ?”

“Ah, sure, Max, why not ?”

“You remember when we met in the store and that asshole Raphael Jameson was there with his mother ?”

“Yes, he was trying to steal Smith from you I believe.”

“Raphael Jameson was my Grandfather and ironically his own son, so my so-called father, is a homophobe.”

Martine chuckled slightly, “Ain’t that one of the most ironic things I’ve heard in a long time.”

They talked for a few hours until Max reminded him that they were going to visit Sati, Seraph and the Oracle tomorrow so that he could show Sati how to make the cookies and they needed to get the ingredients yet.

About twenty minutes later, they walked into the grocery store where he’d helped Max a week or two ago. There was another glitch that for them, at least, only knocked them to the ground and they picked themselves up off the strip of beige carpet in front of the automatic doors. Max muttered before they walked through the doors, “I really hope Sarah will talk to me tomorrow, this is just getting crazy. Love, why don‘t we ever use the car ?”

“Simply because we don’t feel like it.” As he finished the sentence, he grabbed a cart from off to the side and they started toward the produce. Some people were looking warily at the floor beneath their feet.

_‘ I don ’ t know why Sarah is so reluctant to talk about the Prime Program all of the sudden. Still hopefully, she will talk about it sometime. Why does it seem like nearly every wall in the Matrix has to be white ? I am sick of white walls, at least, at home their cream colored. ’_

Beside them, there was a crash and the sound of a child screaming…

**Flashback**

Those sounds as much as Neo’s, “Ad, get out here **now** !”, had him rushing out the front door onto the lawn with Hai following behind.

A Buick had just hit a child, no, no…it was Lucy’s little James splayed on the road with Neo crouched over him. When he saw that over five hundred years of experience failed him and left him thinking, _‘What do I do ? I don’t know what to do.’_

“Stop standing there and get that asshole out of the car.”

His mind was more focused on Neo and James’s conversation as he walked to the green car and wrenched the door open.

“James ! James open your eyes. C’mon look at me, c’mon.”

James’s weak response, “U-uncle Tom ? It hurts a lot.”

“Ssh, I know, God, I know all too well. You’ll be okay, I promise. Now, this is going to hurt a little bit, so why don’t you say hi to Hai ?”

His gaze went to the trio to see the black Wolf Hound licking James’s face, a sharp crack and James screamed again.

**End Flashback**

Of course, this wasn’t nearly as bad as when James had gotten hit by that drunken idiot, but it still hit that ‘Uncle Adrian’ instinct he’d developed. This boy as they walked up had light brown almost pale-skin with black-hair, and the woman who’d hit him was on the heftier side with light-red hair.

The woman snapped, “Get out of the way ! I‘ve already had a bad enough day as it is when I was at the hospital dealing with patients.”

Seconds later, he led the boy off to the side as Max exclaimed, “That doesn’t matter, you’re the one who hit him. You could at the very least apologize to the kid, he didn’t do anything to you !”

“If he hadn’t been running then I wouldn’t have hit him.”

That made him growl, “Apologize, now.”

_‘It’s funny how most of the women listen to me, whereas most of the men listen to Max. Then, of course, there are the times some of them just try flirting. I lost track of how many people flirted with Neo/Tom, but I think he can count on one hand the times someone tried it with me, besides his Grandfather. This looks like it could be another one of those times. At least, it won’t be like with old Mrs. Sands, though that was pleasurable for quite a few reasons.’_

She was staring at him and then looking him over slowly, like most other times it had happened it made him want to shoot the annoyance.

When Max hissed, “He’s **taken** , thank you.”, it was enough to keep him from reaching for his Desert Eagle.

“Pff, what could he possibly want with a little thing like you ?”

An unfamiliar voice answered, “Something that you don’t have that’s what. Mitchell come here.”

He let go of Mitchell and nodded to the possibly Middle Eastern man, who stood beside…Seraph ? Seraph smiled faintly at himself and Max, before the former Angel program said, “Thank you, Smith, Max.”, then bowed slightly before turning and walking away with Mitchell and the other man.

Mitchell half-turned then waved excitedly to himself and Max, they both waved back.

_‘Is it just because Seraph doesn’t talk about his own relationships that much that we didn’t know ? As long as he’s happy, it doesn’t matter. Still I never thought those tea leaves of his would be good for something, I always wondered why those leaves glitched to something else when I looked at them. Yes those damn leaves let Seraph get away from me because I stopped, but if I listened to them would any of this have happened ?’_

When a hand landed on his wrist, he jerked it away with a glare, before he turned and stalked back to the cart. As Max snarled, “Keep your hands off him !”, a few feet away the glass in the bakery display glitched and rippled like water.

After it didn’t take them long to gather the carrots, Max would have to create a few zucchini but otherwise the flour and everything was easy to find. At the checkouts, they were waved over to one and he startled to see an ash-blond, tan-skinned woman with David’s bright-green eyes.

“Hey, Max, hmm, well, Adrian you still look the same as ever. I guess you got really lucky.”

He nodded and smiled slightly, “I did didn’t I ? Ah, Marian, would you like to join us tomorrow at my mother’s ? Some of our other friends and such will be there as well. No, it hasn‘t changed location.”

Marian who’d been scanning and entering items looked up, “I’d love to come see everyone again. Just carrot this time ? Little Sati’s going to be disappointed.”

A chuckle from Max as the blond put his re-acquired debit card into the machine, it was the real card, while the one now in Mr. Jameson’s possession was a fake. “She’s not so little anymore, Marian and trust me we‘ll find some zucchini somewhere around here.”

“Okay, I’ll see you guys and Sati tomorrow then.”

They took their bags and left Marian to do the rest of her job in peace.


	30. Cookies

Max looked around the soft gray/green-walled living room of the Oracle’s apartment. At Trinity and Matt who sat on the floor, while Grace and Cecil stood by the corner that led to the hallway entrance. _‘ It’s too bad Niobe, Persephone and Uri couldn’t be here, still they’ve stuff to do for Sogni’s. Maybe we’ll have to bring some cookies over to them and everybody else, like Seraph, Mitchell and the Key Maker. Sarah and I’ll have to talk to KM today about the whole Prime Program thing or sometime at least.’_

He knew at least most of the others would continue the joke, "So, this guy walks into a bakery and from behind the counter a voice says, "Just pound the damn cake already."

Beside him Smith gave him an amused look as Matt continued, "B-but what if somebody comes in ? We‘ll get in trouble if we‘re caught."

Grace chuckled, "Oh shut up and just do it already. Pound me damn it."

Cecil and Trinity, "It’s just a pound cake who cares, I’m not fucking you at work."

Sarah who sat on Smith’s other side chuckled. Cole who’d just walked in the door, along with Marian, exclaimed, "Oh c’mon ! First cookies, now pound cake ? Is nothing sacred to you guys ?"

The resounding answer of, "Yeah - family !", from everybody.

His son face-palmed then shook his head and murmured disgustedly, "Pound cake, yeesh." then pushed long black-hair out of his eyes.

Marian said, "They haven't ruined Long Johns, yet ? I'm surprised."

"Damn you people for ruining dessert."

Marian stopped in shock as she saw Sati who sat on the loveseat across from them with the Oracle, "Sati, is that you ? B-but, your so big."

Sati got up and hugged Marian, "I'm glad you're okay again, D-Marian, I missed you."

"I missed you too, little priya."

**Flashback**

Neo smiled and murmured, "Hi, Sati.", as Sati skipped into the deep golden sunroom in her white dress and up to the table.

Sati smiled back at him and said cheerily, "Hi, Tom, Smith." then Smith lifted her so she could hug him without his having to get up. He ran a trembling hand over her back, the girl whispered with her arms thrown around his neck, "Oracle and Seraph say hi too.", before she climbed down and moved onto a chair between himself, Smith and David.

She looked over at David, "Hi, Mr., my name's Sati. Who're you ?"

Green-eyes glowed happily as David reached across the table to take Sati's tiny hand, "Well, my priya Sati, my name is David."

"Papa said 'Priya' means 'Dear', so am I 'Priya Satya' now ?"

Smith nodded, "Well, Tom would say so. However, I'm more inclined to call you 'Priya Atanka'."

That confused him and asked, "Those mean what exactly ?"

"My apologizes, love. They mean 'Dear Truth' and 'Dear Terror' respectively."

David gave an amused look to Sati, "Now, whatever did you do to poor Adrian for you to call him that ? The b-Nurse Stone called Adrian and Tom bad things and he's never called that idiot a terror."

It made him laugh, then cough, as Smith pouted, "She keeps stealing my kitchen."

"Good job, priya."

**End Flashback**

Max was pulled back into the present as Cole asked, "Are the cookies done yet, Father ?"

"No."

"Now ?"

"No."

A mock-whined, "Fa-th-er ?"

Smith growled and he patted the tanned hand affectionately as it clenched under his, "What is it, Cole ?"

"Are the cookies done now ?"

The exasperation rising as Smith looked from him to Cole, "No-o, they are not done ! Now be quiet you little brat."

A solitary ‘ **ding** ’ filled the ensuing silence at which everybody laughed.

His love grumbled, "Brat, Max this is your fault.", as he pulled away and got up to stalk through the hanging, green beads into the kitchen. _‘ Only Smith could make walking through clattering beads look threatening.’_

Confused, he wondered, "How’s it **my** fault ? "

The ex-Agent answered as he pulled out the cookies, "He’s your son, if he didn’t look so much like you or rather your old self, he wouldn’t get away with it."

Trinity laughed, "Oh su-ure like Max wouldn’t let Cole get away with it if he happened to look more like you."

"No one asked you for your opinion Trinity."

"I know, but we did ask for cookies. Just so you don’t grammar your way out of it, again, may we have cookies ?"

Sarah added as she leaned past him, "Yeah, what’d you say, Great-grandfather ?"

Smith answered as Sati got up to help put the cookies on a plate, "Hmm, I say...you sound far too happy considering you’ve never tried them before."

Grace shook out her blond-hair as she got up before walking up to lean beside the TV and Matt, "Oh their great, now c’mon, you guys never told me how you came up with them."

Cole exclaimed with a mock-outraged fist shake as he waltzed over to steal Smith’s seat, "You lied to me and James ! You pretended it was **candy**."

"Yes, yes, we know we did, your Aunt Lucy did to in case you forgot. You see we were trying to figure out how to get Cole and young James to eat carrots. They didn’t mind zucchini, but always spat something out if they knew there was carrot in it."

Sati walked back through the beads, "Well, I always liked the cookies. I still think you could’ve put chocolate chips in them."

Sati‘s words had him choking back laughter, _‘Here we go again.’_

His love turned, pointed at Sati and hissed dramatically, " **Disgrace, I banish you !** "

Finally, he burst out laughing, _'Well, he's always had that dramatic side. Like when we were camping with Cole, Niobe and Persephone. Whoo boy, Smith vs. the bear and that was **before** he threw it into the lake.'_

The young woman half-smiled in response, "Oracle, Smith’s ‘banishing’ me from the kitchen…again."

The old, dark-skinned woman smiled and replied, "Well, I just un-banished you for the, what, four…hundredth time ?"

"Something like that. Yeah guys, apparently Smith still likes ‘banishing’ me. No matter how utterly futile it is."

The brown-haired A.I. scowled and growled, " **Damn you** , mother ! Stop un-banishing Sati when I banish her ! She needs a new hobby."

When he calmed down he countered, "You never stopped her from taking over, you just stood there."

The Oracle got up her green-dress swishing and walked into the kitchen to pat Smith on the shoulder, "There, there, it’ll be all right, you're a big boy or, at least, I thought you were. Besides, Sati’s got a new hobby she’s making a name for herself making sculptures. It’s why she wanted to be upgraded, so she could get a permit and sell them. She’s really quite good, she‘s made enough money to get her own little private studio in a warehouse near-by."

_‘Sculpting ? Ooh, that sounds interesting. I wonder what she does. Wait, weren’t there some sort of sculptures by a teen on the news a few months ago ? Those were probably Sati’s.’_

After Smith had passed out some of the cooled cookies, he didn’t expect the ex-Agent to sit down at his feet with a huff, both of them started eating. _‘Mm, God I missed these cookies.’_

He murmured as he ran his free hand through brown-hair, "Thank you, love, they‘re still great."

Most of the others vaguely echoed with either, "Thanks, Smith." or amusingly, "Thanks ASS-hole."

Then he looked over at Sarah who’d started picking the cookie apart, her dark-brown eye wide, like she’d never seen a fresh-made cookie before as she wondered, "What do you use for inspiration, Sati ?"

Sati who was now leaning against the corner/hallway entrance answered, after finishing a bite of cookie, "Oh, I just use people. I asked Niobe and Persephone to do a pose for me, I think it’s going to sell really well with a few of my people. Maybe Smith and Max would help me sometime ?"

Cecil butted in, "Hey, what about me ?! Why can’t I be in a sculpture ? It‘s cause I’m not fucking a guy isn’t it ? Isn't it ?!"

Matt shook his head and tried to calm Cecil, "I don’t think so, it’s probably because bald is too simple for a sculpture. That or you're just not sexy enough, I mean basically everybody's had a crush on Neo, or one on Smith, well Smith's voice, at least, never mind all of them at once. I remember the one time we were talking as they were taking Hai for a walk. People were so distracted they were slamming into each other."

Sarah hummed, distractedly, "Do you think we should bring the others some ?"

"I’ll go with, Sarah, if you don't mind. I mean besides directions n'all, since you get to meet your Great-aunts and everybody else."

_‘While you and I definitely need to talk.’_

"Oh, okay, Max. Should we just go now ?"

With that, he nodded and they said a brief good-bye to the others after packing up some of the cookies. They got into Sarah’s dark-blue and black Cadillac, she murmured as she patted the dashboard, "I call it...the Bruise-mobile."

It made him chuckle, "Nice name." and then they fell into silence as his Great-granddaughter started to drive out of the lot.


	31. Overload

Max leaned his head back against the seat, though his eyes were closed it was far too bright for his sudden headache. They'd just finished bringing some cookies to Martine along with Seraph and his friends - Mitchell and Luke.  It didn't help that even with the radio nearly on silent it was too loud or what it was saying. The radio said that reports had been released that said over a hundred people had been killed in the 'mysterious' earthquakes that'd been felt around the 'world'.

For a split second, it almost made him wish that Smith had never found him in the programming hallway and said that first, "I love you.", because if Smith hadn't said that all those people would still be alive. They were the reason those people were dead and it needed to stop before the toll rose even higher !

It made him wince as Sarah shifted her weight in, seemingly, the noisiest way possible and ran a hand through her hair. If his great-granddaughter was anything like Lucy she'd bit her lip before saying, "Why'd you really come with me ? I know you didn't come just to help with directions."

He reached out and pulled the blue-clothed visior down a bit more, before opening his eyes and turning to look at the brown and gray-eyed woman, "Sarah, you said if we rescued Grace from the 'French' mistake you'd talk to me about the Prime Program. Except after we did it you started avoiding me. Can I ask why ?"

Angry for no discernible reason, Sarah exclaimed, "Why couldn't you and Great-grandfather just do what you were supposed to ? Why couldn't you have just died ? Instead you did whatever you wanted and I ended up getting kidnapped by those fucking twins and..and M-mom didn't care ! She didn't look, **nobody** did ! That fuck was right no one cares about me."

_'W-what happened to her because of that dick ? Of course Lucy cared about her, Sarah's her daughter for shit's sake ! I like to think I still know a little bit about my granddaughter and it'd take a bullet to the head before Lucy stopped caring about her. Poor little Sarah, in a way it would've been good if Persephone would've still been married to that jerk because, at least, she would've known somebody **did** care about her.'_

As she stopped at a red light, slowly, he shook his head and answered, "Sarah if your mom had known where to look she would have and I'm sure she did ! The Merovingian doubtlessly likes to distort the truth just like anyone else sometimes. If I'd still been alive and Smith and I knew about you, everyone - us, Cole and Rebecca along with Niobe and **absolutely everyone** we knew would've turned the Matrix inside out and upside down **until we found you**. I'm sorry you had to live with that asshole, but we do care about you. Dear Sarah, you don't know how amazed I was when I saw you and how happy I was when I realized that you were still alive. Why don't you pull over and tell me what else got you mad ?"

Sarah drove a few blocks down, they were just on the beginning of the subburbs now, and pulled to a stop by the almost empty sidewalk. Her voice shook as she unbuckled her seatbelt and crawled over to sit on his lap, her eyes shining with tears as her emotions overloaded, "H-he said it was a-a secret that only a few A-A.I.'s knew. He said I wasn't s-supposed to tell o-or he'd get the twins to kill me."

Unconsciously, he'd started running a hand over hair, "Ssh, ssh, they won't dare and if they do we'll kick their asses and delete 'em, just you wait 'n see. Their just two dumbass leaves in a forest of much smarter leaves - that's your Great-Greatgrandmom would've said and she'd have started kicking their albino asses too."

What sounded like histerical laughter being smothered against his shoulder, then she giggled, "Dumbass leaves, fits 'em perfectly. Why doesn't somebody tell them their barking up the wrong tree and to leaf us alone ?"

_'Ah, just got to love bad puns when you're having a shitty day. So, what is this 'secret' and why does it sound like something the Oracle would tell me that I decided I wasn't ready to know ? God, she can be annoying sometimes, but she loves Sati, at least.'_

When she rasied her head, he smiled and replied, "Nah, what they need to be told is they spend too much time **rooting** around us."

A knock on his window startled them both and he looked up to see a graying-red haired man with gray-eyes, who otherwise looked like he could be a great-relative of Marian's old self, then rolled the window to ask, "Is something the matter, sir ?"

The man started blushing slightly and shuffled awkwardly, as he thought knew what the 'matter' was he almost laughed aloud, "You do, eerm, remember you're in public don't you ?"

It was Sarah who, choking back her own laughter, answered, "Oh no, no, sir, you've got the wrong idea ! We're not lovers or, at least, considering he's my brother it'd be pret-ty awkward."

Poor old guy started blushing even more and couldn't stop apologizing to them. After he was gone they both burst out laughing. Sarah's answer for avoiding him that minutes later almost shattered the lightened mood, "The secret is simple...if the Prime Program were ever to be, somehow, broken if it's in people...one of them, o-one of u-us, Max, has to die to put it back together."

_'What the Hell is up with people having to die for the Matrix's shit to work poperly ? They need a way better system for their System and they've got the crappiest 'updates' I've ever seen !'_

"We'll figure it out when we get there, for now let's just go see Persephone and Niobe, alright ?"

She nodded and wiped her eyes with a, "Thank you, Great-granddad.", then climbed back into the driver seat. Eventually, they got to Niobe and Persephone's 'little' one-storey, beige and dark-red house. Made sure to grab the small box of cookies from on the backseat and they walked up the little concrete path inbetween the grass and flowers.

It was Persephone in a fitted, dark-emerald dress that answered the door. He was left feeling awkward as the A.I. who through kissing could read, copy and transfer emotions suddenly pulled Sarah into a deep kiss. When the two separated Sarah looked a bit dizzy, but exclaimed, "I feel...happier, cookie ?"

The pale woman smiled and brushed her hair back over her shoulder, "We'd love some, my dear. I'm Persephone, you could say I'm your great-aunt. Come in, come in, will you be staying long ? Niobe went to go do a status check on your mother, Max, so she won't be home."

Sarah blushed, "It's nice to meet you, Persephone."

Persephone and Niobe's walls were a mixture of silver and white, the furniture was minimal for them because they hardly used it, but was still enough for a few people.

"We were just planning to deliver these and introduce you to each other."

What got a chuckle from himself and Persephone was when Sarah walked into the living room and saw the framed picture of Smith with the bear in mid air just before it landed in the water. "Great-grandfather did that ??"

"Yep, that he did."

"What happened ? What happened ?"

Shared a grin with Persephone as he said, "Well, I don't think we have enough time to tell it in."

Sarah threw herself onto the dark-silver couch that took up much of the room, "Ye-ah, we do, we've got all the time in the Matrix."

Both himself and Persephone sat down on either side of Sarah; made himself comfortable and got ready to tell the story.


End file.
